Overview
- Government lawyers told the court on Tuesday they still plan to send Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia despite a new U.S. agreement that allows Costa Rica to take people who cannot be returned home.
- Judge Paula Xinis pressed the Justice Department for pursuing deportation while keeping a human‑smuggling indictment in Tennessee that requires Abrego Garcia to remain in the country.
- DOJ attorney Ernesto Molina suggested Abrego Garcia could "remove himself" to Costa Rica, which Xinis called a "fantasy" because a Tennessee court order requires him to attend criminal hearings.
- Todd Lyons, the acting ICE chief, wrote in March that sending Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica would be "prejudicial to the United States" and argued the U.S. invested diplomatic capital to arrange removals to Liberia.
- Injunctions still bar ICE from detaining or deporting him, and Xinis set a briefing schedule with a follow‑up hearing on April 28, after earlier rulings faulted the agency for lacking a workable removal plan.