Left: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland and deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration, speaks in a hotel restaurant in San Salvador, El Salvador, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Press Office Sen. Van Hollen, via AP). Right: President Donald Trump arrives for a formal dinner at the Paleis Huis ten Bosch ahead of the NATO summit in The Hague, Netherlands, Tuesday, June 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Markus Schreiber).
Attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have accused the Trump administration of "misleading the court" about another country's willingness to accept him, alleging the lying and "vindictiveness" stretch to the very top of federal government leadership.
The Salvadoran national, who had protected status to remain in the United States when he was deported to a notorious El Salvador prison in March, has asserted that a different Central American country has indicated a willingness to accept him as a refugee. Costa Rica can be Abrego Garcia's next home, his lawyers wrote in a 5-page filing on Monday, but "misrepresentations" from the Trump administration threaten this practical conclusion.
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"The government continues to show that it is willing even to mislead the courts regarding the practicability of Mr. Abrego's removal to the country of his choice, Costa Rica, to exact punishment against Mr. Abrego," the filing reads.
Abrego Garcia's lawyers filed a notice on Monday concerning updates on witnesses and exhibits ahead of a hearing in his case in Tennessee, where he was indicted on human smuggling charges. His lawyers have called the case against him a "sham" and filed a motion to dismiss the charges based on vindictive and selective prosecution.
The case is separate from another in Maryland, where Abrego Garcia sued the Trump administration over his deportation, and a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney admitted the deportation was erroneous because of his protective order.
In Monday's notice, the defendant's lawyers principally argued two things: Though they do not need to prove "actual vindictiveness," the administration has obstructed them from obtaining the necessary documents or calling the witnesses "whose testimony would be necessary" to do so; and that the administration cannot deny "the presumption of vindictiveness" without bringing in officials at the very top of the administration.
"The defense has issued subpoenas to three DOJ witnesses," including Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, the notice reads. "The government has moved to quash those subpoenas. That decision is, of course, the government's to make."
"But the status quo of continued vindictiveness, including the government misleading the court in the District of Maryland about Costa Rica's willingness to accept Mr. Abrego as a refugee only further cements the reality that the government cannot rebut the presumption of vindictiveness with just the testimony of two supervisory DHS special agents," Abrego Garcia's attorneys assert, "especially when the Court has already found a realistic likelihood that this indictment was the result of the vindictiveness of 'senior DOJ and [Department of Homeland Security] officials.'"
The attorneys wrote that "the government's misrepresentations to Judge [Paula] Xinis about whether Costa Rica would accept Mr. Abrego confirm that the retaliatory animus toward Mr. Abrego originates at the highest levels of DOJ and DHS."
Fewer than two weeks ago, the defendant's lawyers argued to U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Tennessee that "the government is willing to mislead the courts and defy court orders intended to shed light on its conduct, all in service of punishing Mr. Abrego." They expressed the "need for discovery into the motivations of the high-level officials who initiated this prosecution and are ultimately responsible for the government's misrepresentations regarding Mr. Abrego's third-country removal."
That filing appeared to be an effort to bring Crenshaw up to speed on developments in Abrego Garcia's Maryland habeas case. Instead of accepting the defendant's claim that Costa Rica has agreed to take him, the Trump administration has sought to deport him to Africa, "where he does not speak the language, has no connections, and questions remain as to whether he would live freely."
Abrego Garcia's legal battle against the Trump administration has been emblematic of the second Donald Trump White House's immigration agenda. The Maryland man has become a figurehead of sorts of the challenge to the federal government's deportation plans, which, at times, have come under harsh scrutiny by federal judges.
The hearing on the motion to dismiss for vindictive and selective prosecution is slated for Dec. 8 and 9.