Overview
- DHS Secretary Markwayne Mullin told senators on Wednesday that the agency would be “happy to send” Kilmar Abrego García to Costa Rica, and Abrego García’s lawyers submitted the hearing video and transcript to U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis as evidence.
- Judge Paula Xinis has an existing injunction that bars the government from removing Abrego García while his habeas and constitutional claims proceed, and his legal team says Mullin’s remarks strengthen their request to resolve those claims before any re‑removal.
- The administration had in April chosen Liberia as its final country of removal after evaluating other options, and Justice Department lawyers are still seeking to lift Xinis’s block and to appeal a separate judge’s dismissal of a human‑smuggling indictment.
- Costa Rican officials have told U.S. outlets they would consider granting Abrego García refugee status or residency, a position that defense lawyers say undercuts the government’s prior public policy and foreign‑policy reasons for preferring Liberia.
- The case traces to a mistaken March 2025 deportation to El Salvador despite a 2019 court order barring return, a Supreme Court‑forced repatriation to the U.S., and a Tennessee judge’s recent finding that prosecutors pursued criminal charges in retaliation after he sued over his wrongful removal.