Trump administration’s appeal to deport Abrego to Liberia denied – NBC4 Washington

The Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied the government’s motion to dissolve an injunction forbidding the Trump administration from deporting to Liberia the Maryland man wrongfully deported to El Salvador last year.

The administration has insisted on deporting Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia instead of Costa Rica, where Abrego has agreed to go. But an injunction from Judge Paula Xinis forbids the government from going through with it, prompting the administration to appeal in April.

“A few months ago, the government filed a motion to essentially set aside that order seeking permission to deport him to Liberia and to detain him in a detention center while they were carrying that out,” attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “Judge Xinis was considering the motion but apparently she wasn’t going quite fast enough for the government, and before she even had the chance to rule on it, they took an appeal up to the Court of Appeals.”

With the appeal denied, the case is back in Xinis’ courtroom.

“The stalemate continues, right?” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “It’s been a stalemate since, really, December of last year. The government insists on deporting Mr. Abrego Garcia to Liberia. Well, now it’s Liberia. First, it was Uganda, then it was Ghana. But at this point they assist on deporting him to Liberia and only to Liberia.”

But at a recent congressional hearing, new Secretary of Homeland Security Markwayne Mullin told lawmakers if Abrego wants to go to Costa Rica, the government will send him there.

“And in response to questioning by Sen. [Chris] Van Hollen [D-Md.] under oath, we pointed that out, we filed that into the case,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “Looks to me like they’re walking that back sort of silently, because they haven’t changed their position in court at all.”

He said he doesn’t expect another court date before Xinis issues a new ruling.

“If they want to deport him to Liberia, he’s gotta be taken in front of an immigration judge,” Sandoval-Moshenberg said. “He’s gotta have an opportunity to present his case, you know, win or lose, appeals, etc. Like, just because it’s a third country and not his country of citizenship doesn’t mean that he’s entitled to any less due process.”

Meanwhile, Abrego continues living with his family in Maryland.

Although the criminal case against Abrego, a human smuggling case in Tennessee, was thrown out for vindictive and selective prosecution, the Trump administration is appealing that ruling as well.

The Department of Justice has not commented on the latest ruling nor filed any new motions since it was issued.