Judge blocks Trump from deporting Abrego Garcia to Liberia, extending legal standoff

A federal judge on Monday temporarily blocked the Trump administration's plans to deport Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia from the U.S. to a third country — stopping, for now, the government's stated plans to swiftly remove him to the West African nation of Liberia.

The temporary order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis keeps in place two previous orders she issued blocking the Trump administration's efforts to deport Abrego Garcia from the U.S. for a second time to a third country. It comes just days after ICE Director Todd Lyons asked Xinis to dissolve her injunction, citing what he said were the government's plans to swiftly remove Abrego Garcia to Liberia. 

Lyons told the court Friday that DHS had decided to "disregard" Abrego's request to be removed to the third country of Costa Rica, citing his failure to cite the country as his preferred country of removal during a 2019 hearing before an immigration judge. 

ABREGO GARCIA REMAINS IN US FOR NOW AS JUDGE TAKES CASE UNDER ADVISEMENT

"Neither the statute nor the regulations permit an alien to designate a country of removal beyond the initial opportunity granted in removal proceedings," Lyons said. "If, as here, an alien were permitted to designate a country of removal years after the conclusion of removal proceedings, an alien could avoid ever being removed by endlessly designating new countries of removal," he added. 

Lyons also cited negotiations the U.S. and Liberia allegedly engaged in regarding Abrego Garcia's removal, and argued that abandoning those negotiations could "cast doubt on the diplomatic reliability of the United States."

Abrego Garcia's status has been at the center of a legal and political maelstrom since March, when he was deported to his home country of El Salvador, in violation of a 2019 court order and in what Trump officials acknowledge was an "administrative error." 

Xinis ordered last year that Abrego Garcia be "immediately" returned to the U.S., kicking off a 12-month saga that has spanned two continents, multiple U.S. courts, and countless headlines in the U.S. and internationally.

Last month, she issued a preliminary injunction that blocked DHS from immediately re-detaining Abrego Garcia and deporting him to a third country, including Uganda, Ghana, Eswatini and Liberia, which the administration previously identified to the court as possible removal options. 

She ruled then that the Trump administration had failed to provide the court with "good reason to believe" that they plan to remove him to a third country in the "reasonably foreseeable future," citing a lack of assurances from the countries the government identified for removal that they would accept Abrego Garcia into their country, and assurances that they would not refoul, or return him, to his home country of El Salvador. An immigration judge in 2019 agreed to block his removal back to the country, citing threats of persecution from local gangs. 

The Justice Department and Department of Homeland Security did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment on the new updates in the case. 

The temporary stay comes as Trump officials have been sharply critical of Xinis and other federal judges presiding over deportation cages, whom they have repeatedly accused of overstepping their authorities and acting as "activist" judges.

The Department of Homeland Security has stressed that Abrego Garcia had been living in the U.S. illegally and have blasted news reports describing him as a "Maryland man." They have also cited what they alleged are his ties to the MS-13 gang, which lawyers for Abrego Garcia have denied.

US JUDGE VOWS TO RULE 'SOON' ON ABREGO GARCIA'S FATE AFTER MARATHON HEARING
 

Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia blasted the Trump administration's revived effort to deport the Salvadoran migrant to the third country of Liberia, telling Fox News Digital on Monday that they viewed the new removal effort as hypocritical, and at odds with the government’s own arguments in seeking to block his removal to Costa Rica.

Trump officials are "talking out of both sides of their mouth," Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told Fox News Digital in a statement.

"On the one hand, Mr. Abrego Garcia forfeited his right to designate Costa Rica as a country of removal seven years ago, but on the other hand, they claim the right to designate Liberia as a country of removal seven years later," Sandoval-Moshenberg said. 

"It’s one or the other, they can’t have it both ways," he added.

This is a breaking news story. Check back for updates.