U.S. Government Faces Legal Challenge Over Deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia
The U.S. government is attempting to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, to Liberia despite a new agreement with Costa Rica to accept deportees who cannot be returned to their home countries. Abrego Garcia's case has become a focal point in the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last year. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has barred U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from deporting or detaining him, citing the lack of a viable plan to deport him to African countries. Abrego Garcia, who has an American wife and child, has lived in Maryland for years and was initially ruled by an immigration judge in 2019 to be unable to be deported to El Salvador due to gang threats. The Justice Department is prosecuting him in Tennessee on human smuggling charges. 
