The immigration attorneys representing Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Monday submitted a legal filing to U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis, the appointee of former President Barack Obama overseeing his lawsuits against the Trump administration, claiming that Costa Rica is the only nation where Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) can legally deport their client.
Submitted amid its objections to the government’s arguments for returning their client to ICE custody, the immigration attorneys said the Trump administration has no path to remove Abrego Garcia from the country because it has yet to make arrangements for his deportation to Costa Rica.
His attorneys argued “lawful removal cannot occur unless the Government pursues removal to Costa Rica – the only country authorized” under federal immigration law.
The prospect of removal to Costa Rica was first revealed publicly in August, when prosecutors provided a federal court in Tennessee with emails showing negotiations for a plea deal with Abrego Garcia’s criminal defense attorneys. As part of the negotiations, Abrego Garcia selected Costa Rica as a preferred country for removal so the U.S. State Department could obtain diplomatic assurances that the plea deal would be honored after his deportation.
He declined the plea deal in August, then appeared to shift his stance on Costa Rica in later filings and communications with federal authorities.
After he declined the plea deal, his attorneys notified the government that Costa Rica remained his preferred country for removal, before then claiming that Abrego Garcia feared he would experience persecution or torture if deported to the nation he identified as his preferred destination. He ultimately made similar claims about more than two dozen nations.
While an official in Costa Rica claimed the nation’s offer to accept Abrego Garcia remains valid despite the plea deal falling through, the Trump administration has instead sought to deport him to Liberia, where it has obtained similar diplomatic assurances regarding his treatment.
Referencing the possibility of deportation to Costa Rica again in its Monday filing, his immigration attorneys noted Xinis had previously expressed confusion about the Trump administration’s “inexplicable reluctance” to deport Abrego Garcia to the tropical nation.
“Removal is no more foreseeable today than it was when the Court granted” Abrego Garcia’s release in response to a habeas corpus petition, according to his lawyers. “Now, as then, there is no viable third country other than Costa Rica.”
They claimed, “So long as the Government continues its ‘inexplicable reluctance’ to remove Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica,” then “he remains in ‘removable-but-unremovable limbo,'” citing case law.
This appears to be the first reference to Costa Rica by Abrego Garcia’s attorneys since Xinis ordered his release on December 11, claiming the final ruling from his 2019 immigration case did not include a final deportation order, and that his time in federal detention exceeded the maximum allowable for an illegal immigrant who is not pending removal.
However, after Abrego Garcia was detained by ICE last August, his immigration attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, repeatedly suggested his client would consent to deportation to Costa Rica.
“There’s already an offer on the table from Costa Rica for refugee status in that country, and a guarantee that Costa Rica will not deport him on to El Salvador,” said the attorney in August. “If they want to get him out as quickly as possible, we could work that out tomorrow.”
In September, after requesting that ICE clarify whether various African nations where it sought to deport Abrego Garcia had made pledges similar to those of Costa Rica, Sandoval-Moshenberg reiterated that his client was ready for “immediate” removal to his preferred nation.
“If the Government wished to remove Petitioner, it could do so immediately to Costa Rica,” the immigration attorney wrote in a filing.
Sandoval-Moshenberg went further in October, when he conceded that Abrego Garcia is “going to be removed,” but insisted the destination must be Costa Rica.
“Obviously we don’t consider it justice, it’s not something we’re going to be happy about, that he’s going to be removed from this country,” said the attorney, before adding of Costa Rica, “at the very least we’ll rest assured that it’s place where he can stay, and it’s not going to end up just being a brief layover on the way to El Salvador.”
Deported in March 2025 amid controversy, Abrego Garcia was returned to the country after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) unsealed the indictment accusing him of spending nearly a decade embroiled in a human smuggling ring.
The indictment came weeks after The Tennessee Star reported that Abrego Garcia was stopped by Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) in November 2022, and after THP told The Star that troopers were instructed to release Abrego Garcia by the “Biden-era FBI.” The Trump administration later released a document showing troopers suspected human trafficking.
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty but has requested U.S. District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw, another Obama appointee, toss his case as a vindictive prosecution.
The Star was recognized in 2025 for its reporting on Abrego Garcia with the Dao Prize for Best Local Journalism.
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Tom Pappert is a 2025 recipient of the Dao Prize and the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star. He also reports for the Star News Network. Follow Tom on X. Email tips to [email protected].
