Following the recent decision by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Tuesday, a hearing was scheduled in the second lawsuit brought by Kilmar Abrego Garcia against the Trump administration after the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals denied part of the Trump administration’s appeal of two of Xinis’ orders.
While the appellate court said it would consider whether to reverse the Obama-appointed judge’s decision blocking ICE from arresting Abrego Garcia, it rejected the Trump administration’s argument that Xinis had already constructively denied its appeal of the judge’s order barring Abrego Garcia’s deportation to Liberia.
Originally deported to El Salvador in March 2025, Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States after the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) charged him with human smuggling. Those charges followed reporting from The Tennessee Star, which revealed Abrego Garcia was stopped by the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) in 2022 and suspected of human trafficking, but was released at the instruction of the “Biden-era FBI.”
During failed negotiations for a plea deal last year, the U.S. State Department obtained diplomatic assurances from Costa Rica regarding how Abrego Garcia would be treated if deported there.
While the DOJ claimed in previous filings that similar assurances had been obtained from Liberia, and insisted that Abrego Garcia could no longer be sent to Costa Rica, Secretary Markwayne Mullin said in June that U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) would allow the citizen of El Salvador to be sent to the Central American nation.
Abrego Garcia cannot be sent to his home country, El Salvador, because of a 2019 withholding of removal order that determined he would likely face gang violence.
The hearing comes amid the DOJ’s recent submission of a brief in its appeal of U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw’s decision to drop the human smuggling case against Abrego Garcia, another Obama-appointed jurist. Crenshaw specifically determined the DOJ failed to rebut the presumption of vindictive prosecution he determined existed in response to comments by U.S. Attorney General Todd Blanche during a cable news interview.
The Star received the Dao Prize for Best Local Journalism in recognition of its reporting on Abrego Garcia in 2025.
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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].
Background Photo “Liberia” by blk24ga. CC BY 3.0.
