Trump administration seeks federal judge’s approval for Liberia expulsion

President Donald Trump’s administration asked a federal judge Friday to approve the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to Liberia, arguing that all legal hurdles had been cleared.

The filing Friday is the latest in the administration’s effort to deport Abrego Garcia a second time after he returned from El Salvador earlier this year. The Justice Department asked U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis to allow the deportation, saying Abrego Garcia had failed to establish that he would be persecuted in Liberia.

“Petitioner’s claims are repeatedly failed procedurally and fail on the merits anyway,” the DOJ argued. “This Court should therefore dissolve its preliminary injunction and permit the government to remove petitioner to Liberia.”

U.S. lawyers also said Liberia had presented “sufficient and credible” arguments that Abrego Garcia would not suffer any harm.

DHS to soon deport ABREGO GARCIA TO AFRICAN NATION AFTER ILLEGAL ALIENS RETURN FROM EL SALVADOR, FILE SHOWS

Kilmar Abrego Garcia faces deportation to Liberia. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

Nonetheless, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers say he did not receive sufficient due process to justify his deportation.

“The government insists that the unreasoned decision of a single immigration official, who concluded that Abrego Garcia failed to establish that it was ‘more likely than not’ that he would be persecuted or tortured in Liberia, satisfies due process. It does not,” his lawyers wrote in their own filing Friday.

His lawyers further claim that Abrego Garcia is a victim of retaliation and note that Costa Rica has already offered to accept his deportation flight with refugee status. The United States said it would not send him to Costa Rica unless he agreed to plead guilty to human trafficking charges.

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Abrego Garcia’s lawyers say he risks retaliation from the U.S. government. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)

“The timeline suggests a pattern: when the government received orders it didn’t like in Abrego Garcia’s civil suit challenging his illegal deportation to El Salvador;

Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem blamed “activist” judges for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia earlier this year. (AP Photo/Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo/George Walker IV, file)

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Earlier in the case, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers cited more than 20 countries that he feared would persecute or torture him if he were deported there. Liberia was not among those listed.

“Liberia is a thriving democracy and one of the United States’ closest partners on the African continent,” the DOJ asserted in October.