Criticism of the Trump administration’s mass deportation campaign has grown after Abrego-Garcia was unjustly deported in 2025.
Published April 8, 2026
The U.S. government has reaffirmed its position that it plans to deport Salvadoran immigrant Kilmer Abrego Garcia to Liberia, despite arguments that doing so would amount to revenge.
Lawyers for President Donald Trump’s administration told U.S. Federal Judge Paula Kisinis on Tuesday that they remain committed to Liberia as a destination.
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But Abrego García has said that if he must be deported, he would like to be sent to Costa Rica, where the government has indicated it is willing to take him in.
But the Trump administration’s insistence on sending Abrego-Garcia to Africa has raised questions about its motives.
Critics have accused the U.S. government of seeking retaliation against Abrego-Garcia, who has spurred intense scrutiny over the legality of President Trump’s mass deportation campaign.
This incident started with a grave mistake. In March 2025, less than three months into President Trump’s second term, Abrego García was wrongfully deported to his native El Salvador in violation of a 2019 protective order that said he could be exposed to gang violence if he returned.
At the time, the Trump administration described Abrego-Garcia’s firing as an “administrative error.”
Still, the government initially refused to seek Abrego García’s return, arguing that he was a gang member and would be subject to Salvadoran guidance once he left the country. However, Abrego-Garcia had no criminal record at the time of his deportation.
Abrego García was first imprisoned in El Salvador’s Confinement Center for Terrorism (CECOT) and later in a second prison in Santa Ana, El Salvador.
Meanwhile, U.S. lawyers were suing a U.S. court to cancel his deportation.
In early April 2025, Judge Kunis ruled that the U.S. government must “facilitate” Abrego-Garcia’s return, and later that month, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld her ruling in a unanimous decision.
However, Abrego-Garcia was not brought back to the United States until June 2025. In announcing Abrego-Garcia’s return, the Trump administration said it planned to file criminal charges against him for human smuggling.
Although he pleaded not guilty, he was forced to remain in prison. The Trump administration considers him a flight risk, and his lawyers feared that stepping out of his cell could lead to immigration detention.
That’s exactly what happened when a court ordered his release in August. Immigration officials took him back into custody within days.
Authorities at the time announced that he would be deported to Uganda. They later changed their proposed destination to Liberia.
Abrego-Garcia was eventually released from immigration detention in December, but continues to fight both criminal charges and deportation proceedings.
During Tuesday’s hearing, Judge Kunis questioned why the Trump administration did not consider deporting Abrego-Garcia to Costa Rica instead of Liberia.
He noted that the country recently signed an agreement to accept 25 deportations per week from the United States.
In response, Ernesto Molina, head of the Department of Justice’s immigration litigation division, suggested that Abrego-Garcia could be “deported” to Costa Rica.
But Sinis called the proposal “fantasy” and said he could not resign as long as the Justice Department filed criminal charges. He is legally required to attend the criminal hearing.
After a tense exchange, Sinis set another hearing on the matter for April 28.
