Homeland Security Secretary Markwayne Mullin may have unwittingly derailed his own agency's months-long attempts to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose case has become a lightning rod in the Trump administration's mass deportation campaign, to Liberia.
The administration has spent a year trying to deport the Salvadoran immigrant a second time after the government was ordered to return him to the U.S. from a brutal prison in his home country last year. However, the administration has simultaneously attempted to deport him to at least five different countries, including four in Africa. In April, the administration 'analyzed and eliminated all other options' and settled on Liberia as 'a final country of removal,' despite Abrego Garcia's own attempts to remove himself to Costa Rica.
Mullin, who admitted he is not familiar with the details of a case that has dominated coverage of the administration's anti-immigration agenda, told members of Congress that the U.S. would 'gladly' send him to Costa Rica. 'Great, if he's willing to do that we'd be happy to send him,' Mullin said during a Senate Appropriations Committee hearing.
Abrego Garcia's legal team has taken notice. On Wednesday, lawyers for Abrego Garcia told the federal judge overseeing his lawsuit over his wrongful removal that Mullin's remarks serve 'as further evidence' against his deportation. The Independent has requested comment from the Department of Homeland Security.
The Trump administration has been fighting in court to re-deport Abrego Garcia even as federal prosecutors have pursued a parallel criminal case against him. Last month, the judge overseeing that case dismissed the indictment after Abrego Garcia argued he was being unlawfully targeted in retaliation for his lawsuit over his wrongful arrest and removal.
Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and has lived in Maryland for years after fleeing gang violence in El Salvador and entering the U.S. illegally as a teenager. An immigration judge blocked his deportation to El Salvador in 2019. In March 2025, he was deported to El Salvador's CECOT mega prison, where he says he endured torture and severe abuse for several weeks before being transferred to another jail. Government officials admitted in court that his removal was due to an 'error,' and multiple federal judges, including a unanimous Supreme Court, ordered the administration to facilitate his return.
However, the government spent weeks battling court orders and launched a barrage of public attacks against him, declaring he would never again set foot in the U.S. He was abruptly returned to the U.S. last June, only to face allegations of illegally moving other immigrants across the country. He pleaded not guilty.
In his ruling dismissing the criminal case, Tennessee District Judge Waverly Crenshaw argued that federal prosecutors would not have brought charges if Abrego Garcia had not sued the government over his wrongful deportation. The government's decision to reopen a previously closed investigation, coupled with public statements from officials including Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche tying the case to his lawsuit, 'taints the investigation with a vindictive motive,' the judge wrote.
The judge overseeing his deportation case has blocked ICE from re-deporting or detaining him, noting earlier this year that the government has made 'one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success.' In a March 2026 memo, ICE's then-acting director Todd Lyons argued that sending him to Costa Rica would be 'prejudicial to the United States.' Department of Justice attorneys wrote in April that this constitutes 'a facially legitimate and bona fide reason' to send him to Liberia instead. ICE has 'weighed the evidence and documentation' and 'decided that it is in the best interest of the United States to proceed with removal to Liberia,' they argued.
Government lawyers claim the U.S. has expended significant political capital and entered 'high-stakes' and 'extensive negotiations' to send him to Liberia. Mullin may have inadvertently derailed those efforts during his exchange with Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen on Tuesday. Van Hollen pointed out that Abrego Garcia was illegally removed to El Salvador and that the administration has admitted this. 'The point is he has said that he will be removed to Costa Rica and Costa Rica has accepted that,' Van Hollen said. Mullin interjected, 'Great. If he's willing to do that, we'll be happy to send him.'
