Judge blocks Trump from deporting Abrego Garcia to Liberia, extending legal standoff
A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's plans to deport Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia from the U.S. to a third country — stopping, for now, the...
By Fox News · Fox News
A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's plans to deport Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia from the U.S. to a third country — stopping, for now, the government's stated plans to swiftly remove him to the West African nation of Liberia. The temporary order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis keeps in place two previous orders she issued blocking the Trump administration's efforts to deport Abrego Garcia from the U.S. for a second time to a third country. It comes just days after ICE Director Todd Lyons asked Xinis to dissolve her injunction, citing what he said were the government's plans to swiftly remove Abrego Garcia to Liberia. Lyons told the court Friday that DHS had decided to "disregard" Abrego's request to be removed to the third country of Costa Rica, citing his failure to cite the country as his preferred country of removal during a 2019 hearing before an immigration judge. ABREGO GARCIA REMAINS IN US FOR NOW AS JUDGE TAKES CASE UNDER ADVISEMENT "Neither the statute nor the regulations permit an alien to designate a country of removal beyond the initial opportunity granted in removal proceedings," Lyons said. "If, as here, an alien were permitted to designate a country of removal years after the conclusion of removal proceedings, an alien could avoid ever being removed by endlessly designating new countries of removal," he added. Lyons also cited negotiations the U.S. and Liberia allegedly engaged in regarding Abrego Garcia's removal, and argued that abandoning those negotiations could "cast doubt on the diplomatic reliability of the United States." Abrego Garcia's status has been at the center of a legal and political maelstrom since March, when he was deported to his home country of El Salvador, in violation of a 2019 court order and in what Trump officials acknowledge was an "administrative error." Xinis ordered last year that Abrego Garcia be "immediately" returned to the U.S., kicking off a 12-month saga that has…