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A judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration’s plans to deport Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia from the US to a third country — halting, for the time being, the government’s stated plans to immediately remove him from the West African nation of Liberia.
US District Judge Paula Xinis’ temporary order upholds two previous orders she issued blocking the Trump administration’s efforts to deport Abrego Garcia from the US a second time to a third country. It comes days after ICE Director Todd Lyons asked Xinis to dissolve his order, citing what he said were government plans to immediately remove Abrego Garcia to Liberia.
Lyons told the court on Friday that DHS decided to “ignore” Abrego’s request to be removed to the third country of Costa Rica, citing his failure to name the country as his preferred country of removal during a 2019 hearing before an immigration judge.
ABREGO GARCIA REMAINS WITH US NOW AS JUDGE TAKES CASE UNDER ADVICE
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, right, and his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, attend a prayer vigil before entering the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) office on August 25, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
“The law or regulations do not allow an immigrant to designate the country to which he or she will be removed without first being given a hearing,” Lyons said. “If, as here, the alien is allowed to designate the country to which he will be removed years after the conclusion of the removal case, the alien can avoid removal by designating new countries for permanent removal,” he added.
Lyons also pointed out the talks the US and Liberia are allegedly involved in regarding the removal of Abrego Garcia, and pointed out that leaving those talks “would call into question the credibility of the United States.”
Abrego Garcia’s situation has been at the center of law and politics since March, where was deported to his home country of El Salvador, in violation of a 2019 court order and in what Trump officials admit is “an administrative error.”
Xinis ordered last year that Abrego Garcia be “immediately extradited” to the US, starting a 12-month trial that spanned two continents, multiple US courts, and made headlines in the US and abroad.
Last month, he issued a preliminary injunction barring DHS from immediately re-arresting Abrego Garcia and extraditing him to a third country, including Uganda, Ghana, Eswatini and Liberia, which the administration had previously identified in court as potential removal options.
He then ruled that the Trump administration failed to give the court “good reason to believe” that they plan to remove him from a third country in the “foreseeable future,” citing the lack of assurances from the countries the government has identified for removal that they will accept Abrego Garcia into their country, and assurances that they will not turn him away, or send him back, to his home country of El Salvador. An immigration judge in 2019 agreed to block his removal from the country, citing threats of prosecution by local groups.
The Department of Justice and the Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital’s request for comment on new updates in the case.
The temporary stay comes as Trump officials have been increasingly critical of Xinis and other judges who preside over the deportation cages, which they have. repeatedly accused of trespassing their mandates and act as “activist” judges.
The Department of Homeland Security insisted that Abrego Garcia was living in the US illegally and blasted news reports describing him as a “Maryland man.” They also brought up what they say is his ties to the MS-13 gang, which Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have denied.
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A woman is seen holding a photo of Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia in front of US District Court in Nashville. The judge ordered Trump officials to testify in court in January to consider Abrego’s motion to dismiss on grounds of ‘retaliatory’ prosecution. (Getty Images)
Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia criticized the Trump administration’s renewed effort to deport the Salvadoran immigrant from the third country of Liberia, telling Fox News Digital on Monday that they view the new removal effort as hypocritical, and at odds with the government’s arguments to block his removal from Costa Rica.
Trump officials are “talking out of both sides of their mouths,” Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told Fox News Digital in a statement.
“On the one hand, Mr. Abrego Garcia lost his right to designate Costa Rica as a removal country seven years ago, but on the other hand, they say they have the right to designate Liberia as a removal country seven years later,” said Sandoval-Moshenberg.
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“It’s one or the other, they can’t have both,” he added.
This is a breaking story. Check back for updates.
