Deportation

ICE Insists Liberia Is the Only Place It Can Deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia

The administration insists it can only deport him to Africa. It's not clear why, other than to be vindictive.

Joe Lancaster | 3.23.2026 1:50 PM

Share on FacebookShare on XShare on RedditShare by emailPrint friendly versionCopy page URL Add Reason to Google

Media Contact & Reprint Requests

(Carol Guzy/ZUMAPRESS/Newscom)

One year after it improperly arrested and deported a Salvadoran man, the Trump administration is in court trying to remove him again—not to his home country, this time, but to a completely separate continent. It's not clear why, other than simply to be vindictive.

In March 2025, Department of Homeland Security (DHS) agents arrested Kilmar Abrego Garcia and deported him back to El Salvador. The problem was that although he had entered the country illegally, an immigration judge had previously granted him "withholding of removal" to El Salvador, meaning that was the only country where he couldn't be sent.

In April, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed a lower court's ruling that the government "facilitate" his release and return, "and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador." Instead, the administration ignored the ruling and falsely claimed the court had ruled in its favor.

"He is not coming back to our country," Attorney General Pam Bondi told Fox News. "That's the end of the story." DHS Acting General Counsel Joseph Mazzara agreed, claiming in an affidavit, "DHS does not have authority to forcibly extract an alien from the........

© Reason.com