A federal hearing over Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s proposed deportation to Liberia was abruptly cancelled on Tuesday, leaving unresolved whether the Salvadoran man can be removed to the West African country.
His lawyers had been due to ask US District Judge Paula Xinis, in Maryland, to block the deportation. The hearing was delayed by 15 minutes before a court official told members of the public it would not go ahead, and the courtroom was then cleared.
Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland with his family when he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March 2025. A 2019 court order had barred his removal there because of the risk of harm from local gangs.
The Trump administration has alleged that he was a member of MS-13, a claim he has denied. He was held initially at El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison before being returned to the United States in June 2025 to face charges of human smuggling.
The administration said in March that it was prepared to deport him to Liberia and asked Judge Xinis to lift an order preventing his removal. Government lawyers said Liberia was willing to accept him and that Immigration and Customs Enforcement could arrange a charter flight within days.
Abrego Garcia has instead said he is willing to go to Costa Rica, which he named as his preferred destination. Costa Rica has indicated that it would provide him with refugee status or residency, although a Justice Department lawyer said at a hearing last year that there had been no discussions about sending him there.
Liberia is among the countries that have agreed to accept non-native immigrants from the United States. The Trump administration began sending deportees from Latin America there in August, with some saying they had been left unable to return either to the US or to their countries of origin.
Tuesday’s hearing would have been the first since a federal judge in Tennessee dismissed the criminal indictment against Abrego Garcia. The judge found that the Justice Department’s prosecution was vindictive, while the government appealed the ruling in August.
In filings before the scheduled hearing, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers accused the administration of using immigration powers to punish him for challenging his deportation to El Salvador.
“Just as the Government unlawfully wielded its criminal powers against Abrego Garcia, so it seeks to unlawfully exploit its immigration powers against him,” they wrote. “The record leaves no mystery about what is going on. If the Government truly wanted to remove Abrego Garcia from the United States, it would have sent him to Costa Rica in August 2025 when he designated it [as his country of removal].”
The administration has also sought to send him to Uganda, Eswatini and Ghana, but none agreed to accept him. The Justice Department has urged Judge Xinis to reject his applications, arguing that “his claims fail as a matter of law”.
Abrego Garcia remains out of Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody while the case continues.
