As the Department of Homeland Security continues to seek the deportation of Kilmar Abrego García, the agency said Friday that it had identified a new country of removal that has agreed to accept the wrongfully deported Salvador native: the West African nation of Liberia.
In a court notice filed Friday, Justice Department attorneys said DHS has received “diplomatic assurances regarding the treatment of third-country persons deported to Liberia from the United States and is making final arrangements necessary to [Abrego Garcia’s] elimination.”
According to the notice, DHS hopes “to be able to effect the removal as soon as October 31.”
Abrego García, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March to El Salvador’s CECOT megaprison, despite a 2019 court order prohibiting his deportation to that country for fear of persecution. The Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which his family and lawyers deny.
he was brought back to the US in June to face human trafficking charges in Tennessee, to which he has pleaded not guilty. After being released to his brother’s custody in Maryland pending trial, he was arrested again by immigration authorities and is currently detained in Pennsylvania, where the government has told his lawyers that it intends to deport him to a country other than El Salvador.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who has been overseeing Abrego García’s immigration case in Maryland, has currently prohibited the government from expelling him from the United States.
Kilmar Abrego García speaks during a rally and prayer vigil for him before entering a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) field office on August 25, 2025 in Baltimore, Maryland.
Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Friday’s notice comes after DHS served Abrego García with a removal notice to Ghana that the agency later said was “premature.” Before that, DHS said it planned to deport Abrego García to Eswatini and Uganda.
In response to Friday’s DHS notice, Abrego García’s attorney said the government “has chosen another path that appears designed to inflict maximum hardship.”
“Having targeted Uganda, Eswatini and Ghana, ICE now seeks to deport our client Kilmar Abrego García to Liberia, a country with which he has no connection, thousands of miles from his family and home in Maryland,” Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg told ABC News. “Costa Rica has agreed to accept him as a refugee and it remains a viable and legal option.”
According to the Department of Justice, Liberia is “a thriving democracy” and is “committed to the humane treatment of refugees.”
