Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office in Baltimore on Monday, Aug. 25, 2025 (Graeme Sloan/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The filing noted that Abrego Garcia’s attorneys cited more than 20 countries he allegedly fears would prosecute or torture him if he were removed there and that Liberia is not on that list.
"Liberia is a thriving democracy and one of the United States’s closest partners on the African continent," the filing said.
The filing said the country's national language is English, its constitution "provides robust protections for human rights," and Liberia is "committed to the humane treatment of refugees."
DHS said in the filing that it has received diplomatic assurances from Liberia about the humane treatment of people removed there.
Attorneys for Abrego Garcia blasted the administration’s latest move as political retribution, arguing the latest deportation plan is part of a pattern of punitive deportation tactics.
"After failed attempts with Uganda, Eswatini, and Ghana, ICE now seeks to deport our client, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to Liberia, a country with which he has no connection, thousands of miles from his family and home in Maryland," attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg said in a statement, according to The Associated Press.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia meets with Sen. Van Hollen, D-Md., in El Salvador. (X / @ChrisVanHollen)
"Clearly, Trump’s cronies want to avoid answering for the claim that they are engaged in a vindictive prosecution against Abrego Garcia, after a federal judge concluded earlier this month that his prosecution ‘may stem from retaliation by the DOJ and DHS due to Abrego’s successful challenge of his unlawful deportation in Maryland.’ Kilmar must be allowed his day in court to fight for his rights," the senator said.
Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally in 2011 and was issued a deportation order in 2019. Two previous judges found he was likely affiliated with MS-13.
Trump administration officials acknowledged in court that his deportation had been an administrative error, although some top Trump officials said he was correctly removed and contended he's a member of the notorious MS-13 gang.
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One immigration judge in 2019 found that Garcia had not sufficiently refuted evidence of MS-13 affiliation and was thus removable to anywhere other than El Salvador because of a threat from a rival gang.
The latest move to deport him comes as Abrego Garcia remains in immigration detention in Pennsylvania. A federal judge in Maryland previously barred his immediate deportation while reviewing claims that the government is retaliating against him for successfully challenging his wrongful removal earlier this year.
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The same judge wrote in an October order that his prosecution "may stem from retaliation by the DOJ and DHS," while a separate case in Tennessee over human smuggling charges is still pending.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Michael Dorgan is a writer for Fox News Digital and Fox Business.
You can send tips to michael.dorgan@fox.com and follow him on Twitter @M_Dorgan.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/dhs-soon-deport-abrego-garcia-african-nation-after-illegal-aliens-return-from-el-salvador-filing-says