Kilmar Abrego Garcia update: Hearing Thursday as US seeks to lift order blocking deportation

MD judge weighing case to send Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia

A hearing was held on Thursday at the U.S. District Courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland, as government attorneys say they have cleared the hurdles to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia and are asking a federal judge to lift the order blocking his removal. FOX 5 Chief Legal Correspondent Katie Barlow explains.

GREENBELT, Md. - A hearing is scheduled Thursday at the U.S. District Courthouse in Greenbelt, Maryland, as government attorneys say they have cleared the hurdles to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia and are asking a federal judge to lift the order blocking his removal.

What we know:

Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation to El Salvador earlier this year has fueled opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration policies.

His attorneys argue the administration is now manipulating the immigration system to punish him for successfully challenging that removal.

A government motion filed this month in U.S. District Court in Maryland says officials have received assurances from Liberia that Abrego Garcia would not face persecution or torture there.

The motion says an immigration officer heard Abrego Garcia’s claims that he feared deportation to Liberia but ruled against him.

In a separate filing, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys argued he has already designated Costa Rica as a country where he is willing to be deported.

His attorneys argue the government must now send him there. They say officials’ continued efforts to deport him elsewhere show the process is retaliatory and violates due process protections.

READ MORE: Trump DOJ plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia

The backstory:

Abrego Garcia, who has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years, immigrated illegally from El Salvador as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge gave him protection from deportation, finding he faced danger in his home country. But in March, he was deported to El Salvador anyway in what a government attorney later called an administrative error. The administration returned him to the United States in June but has since pursued deportation to a third country.

Abrego Garcia also faces human smuggling charges in federal court in Tennessee. He has pleaded not guilty and asked the judge to dismiss the case, arguing the charges amount to "selective or vindictive prosecution." A hearing on that motion is scheduled for December 8. 

READ MORE: Maryland judge orders emergency hearing in case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia