Mystery as Kilmar Ábrego Garcia deportation hearing abruptly canceled

Mystery as Kilmar Ábrego Garcia deportation hearing abruptly canceled The government is moving to vacate a preliminary injunction put in place by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis - Bookmark - CommentsGo to comments Become an Independent member to bookmark this article Already a member? Log in A court hearing intended to decide whether a man mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration should now be sent to Liberia was abruptly called off on Tuesday without immediate explanation. The proceedings were scheduled to address a government effort to dissolve a preliminary injunction issued by U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis. The injunction currently stops U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement from detaining and expelling Kilmar Ábrego Garcia to the West African nation of Liberia. Ábrego Garcia's attorneys are seeking to make the order permanent. Last December, the judge maintained existing protections and ordered Ábrego Garcia released from custody. Although Ábrego Garcia was present in the courtroom on Tuesday, Judge Xinis never took the bench. Five minutes before the session was scheduled to start, attorneys representing both parties exited the room. Following a 15-minute conference, the hearing was formally canceled. The court gave no explanation for the sudden cancellation. Speaking to reporters outside the courthouse, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, a lawyer representing Ábrego Garcia, said only that the session could not proceed Tuesday. He provided no details on why the cancellation occurred, adding that an update would be filed on the court docket in the coming days. "Unfortunately, the court was unable to go forward today," Sandoval-Moshenberg said. The case of the 31-year-old Salvadoran national has become a focal point in national debates over immigration after he was wrongfully expelled to his home country last year. Since returning to the U.S., he has been resisting a secondary effort by Department of Homeland Security officials to send him to a country in West Africa. Ábrego Garcia argued that if he must be removed from the U.S., he should be sent to Costa Rica, which had previously expressed a willingness to accept him. However, Todd Lyons, the former acting director of ICE, stated in a March 2026 memo that sending Ábrego Garcia to Costa Rica would be "prejudicial to the United States," asserting that the government had expended resources and political leverage to secure an agreement with Liberia for third-country deportees. Federal authorities maintained their attempt to deport him to Liberia even after the U.S. concluded an accord with Costa Rica to take in non-citizens who cannot legally be sent back to their home nations. "The government is leading the same rodeo as many times before. Sending Kilmar to Costa Rica is on the table. However, the government continues to punish him for pursuing his constitutional rights and seeks to ship him to Liberia," said Jossie Flor Sapunar, the national communications director for We Are CASA, an organization supporting Ábrego Garcia and his family. She noted that "Kilmar has become an international symbol of due process, a symbol which the Trump administration wants to silence." Demonstrators gathered outside the courthouse in the Washington, D.C., suburbs on Tuesday, with several supporters wearing green vests marked "CASA." Nadine Seiler, 61, held a banner in support of Ábrego Garcia as a choir performed "We Shall Not be Moved." Seiler, who emigrated from Trinidad nearly 39 years ago, said she came to stand in solidarity. "I’m an immigrant. I have come to represent for my immigrant community," Seiler said, observing that Ábrego Garcia indicated months ago he was prepared to leave the country, but federal authorities refused to agree. "It’s not about policy. It’s about cruelty." In an email, she added that the family ought to be granted privacy, whether in Maryland or in Costa Rica. Ábrego Garcia has lived in Maryland for years with his American wife and child after entering the U.S. illegally as a teenager. In 2019, an immigration judge determined that he could not be returned to El Salvador because he faced severe danger from a gang that had issued threats against his family. In March 2025, he was arrested in Baltimore after picking up his then-5-year-old son—who has autism and other disabilities—from the boy’s grandmother’s house, court records show. Following his arrest, Ábrego Garcia was transferred to CECOT, a mega-prison in El Salvador where human rights advocates document widespread abuse and where prisoners are held in overcrowded cells without outdoor access. ICE officials later conceded in court documents that his deportation to the facility was an "administrative error." Under significant public backlash and a judicial directive, President Donald Trump’s Republican administration brought Ábrego Garcia back to the U.S. in June 2025, but only after obtaining an indictment in Tennessee charging him with human smuggling. A federal judge dropped the case in May 2026, ruling that the Justice Department had pursued criminal charges to penalize Ábrego Garcia for contesting his removal. The government is appealing that decision. Join our commenting forum Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies Comments