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The Trump administration is now seeking to deport “Maryland Man” Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia, new court filings reveal.
“Although Petitioner has identified more than twenty countries that he purports to fear would persecute or torture him if he were removed there, Liberia is not on that list,” the Department of Justice (DOJ) filing states.
The filing also states “Liberia is a thriving democracy and one of the United States’s closest partners on the African continent,” noting that the country’s national language is English.
The Trump admin has already tried and failed to deport Garcia to a number of different African nations, including Eswatini, formerly Swaziland.
Liberia has now agreed to receive him.
Garcia’s lawyers are currently seeking assurances that Liberia will not try to deport him to his native El Salvador, where they say he will face threats of gang violence. Garcia is alleged to be a member of the violent Salvadorean gang MS-13, which he denies.
Garcia’s lawyers have also said he fears being deported to other Central and South America countries, except Costa Rica.
“After failed attempts with Uganda, Eswatini, and Ghana, ICE now seeks to deport our client, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to Liberia, a country with which he has no connection, thousands of miles from his family and home in Maryland,” his attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said.
“Costa Rica stands ready to accept him as a refugee, a viable and lawful option. Yet, the government has chosen a course calculated to inflict maximum hardship. These actions are punitive, cruel, and unconstitutional.”
The new DoJ filing came two weeks after a judge ordered a probe into the administration’s plans for Garcia.
Garcia became a cause célèbre for the left when he was arrested back in March and swiftly deported to El Salvador. He was visited in the country by American politicians, and then returned to the US to face human-trafficking charges at the order of a judge.
Garcia is scheduled to face trial in January 2026. On 3 November, a judge will hear arguments for a motion to dismiss the case.
