NEED TO KNOW

• DHS told a federal judge Tuesday it still intends to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia — despite Costa Rica agreeing to accept him
• The DOJ suggested Abrego Garcia could "remove himself" to Costa Rica; Judge Paula Xinis called that a "fantasy" given his pending federal criminal case
• ICE's acting head justified the Liberia preference in writing: the U.S. has spent "government resources and political capital" negotiating with the West African nation

GREENBELT, MD. (TDR) — The Department of Homeland Security told U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Tuesday it still plans to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia — a country he has no connection to — even after the United States reached a new agreement with Costa Rica to accept deportees who cannot legally be returned to their home countries.

The big picture: The Abrego Garcia case has become a live stress test of whether federal courts can constrain the Trump administration's deportation machinery. Tuesday's hearing added a new layer: the government is now defending a deportation destination not on legal grounds, but on the basis of diplomatic investment — a rationale Xinis has already called a series of "empty threats."

Freedom-Loving Beachwear by Red Beach Nation - Save 10% With Code RVM10

• Xinis previously barred ICE from deporting or detaining Abrego Garcia, writing in February that the agency had presented "one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success"
• Abrego Garcia has asked the judge to send him to Costa Rica if deportation proceeds — Costa Rica has already agreed to accept him

Why it matters: The government's stated rationale for preferring Liberia over Costa Rica is not legal or factual — it is logistical. That distinction puts the court in the position of evaluating whether diplomatic sunk costs justify overriding a willing receiving country and an existing judicial protection order.

• Abrego Garcia, 30, is a Salvadoran national with an American wife and child; he has lived in Maryland for years
• A 2019 immigration judge ruling barred his deportation to El Salvador because of credible gang threats against his family — a ruling the government ignored when it deported him there anyway last year

Driving the news: At Tuesday's hearing in Xinis' Maryland courtroom, the government's position hardened rather than softened after the Costa Rica agreement became public.

CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM THE THE DUPREE REPORT

• ICE acting director Todd Lyons stated in a March memo that deporting Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica would be "prejudicial to the United States" — and that Liberia should receive him because the U.S. has spent resources and political capital securing that country's cooperation on third-country deportations
• DOJ's Office of Immigration Litigation director Ernesto Molina told the court Abrego Garcia could "remove himself" to Costa Rica
• Xinis — noting that the DOJ is simultaneously prosecuting Abrego Garcia in Tennessee on human smuggling charges — called that suggestion a "fantasy"

What they're saying: The legal and political arguments are running in opposite directions.

• Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty to the Tennessee human smuggling charges and asked that judge to dismiss the case as vindictive prosecution — filed, his attorneys argue, only after the Trump administration was forced to return him to the U.S.
• The Trump administration brought him back from El Salvador in June only after a court order and public pressure — and only after first securing the federal indictment

Yes, but: The human smuggling charge is real and unresolved. If Abrego Garcia is convicted, the deportation debate shifts significantly — and the administration's sequencing (indict, then return, then re-deport) may be legally sound even if politically motivated. Xinis has not ruled on the merits of the smuggling case; her jurisdiction is immigration detention and removal, not the Tennessee criminal proceedings.

Between the lines: The Lyons memo is the tell. Justifying a Liberia deportation because the U.S. "spent resources and political capital" negotiating with Liberia is an admission that the choice of destination is about maintaining leverage with a third country — not about Abrego Garcia's individual case. Xinis has already said the Africa deportation plans had "no real chance of success." The government is now on record arguing it should deport a man to a country he has no ties to in order to protect a diplomatic relationship with that country. That argument is likely to fare poorly in court — but the administration may be betting on appeals, not Xinis.

What's next:

• Xinis' existing order bars ICE from deporting or detaining Abrego Garcia; no new ruling issued from Tuesday's hearing
• The Tennessee smuggling case continues; Abrego Garcia's motion to dismiss is pending

If the government's reason for sending a man to a country he has no connection to is that it already spent diplomatic capital getting that country to say yes — is that immigration enforcement or sunk-cost thinking dressed up as policy?

Sources

This report was compiled using information from AP via KOMO News, CBS Baltimore, FOX 5 DC, KSAT, and The Washington Post.

Freedom-Loving Beachwear by Red Beach Nation - Save 10% With Code RVM10