The U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Friday that it is making “final necessary arrangements” for the removal of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran illegal immigrant, to Liberia, a West African nation.
The administration claims Liberia has agreed to accept him as early as October 31, Halloween. This decision marks the latest development in an ongoing, high-profile legal struggle over Abrego Garcia’s removal.
Abrego Garcia has been at the center of a protracted legal battle following his mistaken deportation to his native El Salvador in March. Federal judges and the Supreme Court ordered the government to reverse the “illegal” removal.
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The Trump administration brought him back to the U.S. in June, but he was subsequently hit with new criminal charges alleging he smuggled immigrants across the country, to which he has pleaded not guilty.
Shifting Destination Countries
During the legal proceedings, the Trump administration has repeatedly proposed sending Abrego Garcia to a number of different countries. Previous destinations that were suggested or planned include:
- Costa Rica: Initially offered as a deportation destination if Abrego Garcia agreed to plead guilty to human smuggling charges.
- Uganda: Threatened as an alternative destination if he refused the plea deal.
- El Salvador: Suggested as a possibility if he were able to successfully reopen an asylum case, an attempt that was rejected by the presiding judge.
- Eswatini: An African nation chosen, according to an ICE official’s email to his legal team, because he had expressed fear of persecution or torture in other countries.
- Ghana: A notice was sent to his legal team about removal to Ghana, though officials later admitted this notice was “premature.”
The governments of Ghana, Eswatini, and Uganda have all declined to accept him. Abrego Garcia’s legal team also stated earlier this month that he was prepared to leave for Costa Rica, an offer the administration appears to have since rescinded.
In their filing, government lawyers argued that Liberia is a suitable destination. They wrote that “Liberia is a thriving democracy and one of the United States’s closest partners on the African continent,” with “robust protections for human rights” and “protections for refugees and vulnerable populations.” They also noted that while Abrego Garcia had identified over 20 countries where he fears persecution or torture, Liberia was “not on that list.”
Upon his return from El Salvador, where he claimed he spent several weeks in a brutal prison and was subject to “severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture,” Abrego Garcia was briefly released but quickly returned to the custody of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to face renewed deportation efforts.
The Liberian foreign minister, Sara Beysolow Nyanti, met with Secretary of State Marco Rubio last week, according to a press release from the country’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, before the announcement of the proposed deportation to Liberia.
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