Kilmar Abrego Garcia is set to appear before U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on Tuesday, asking the federal court to block the Trump administration from carrying out what his lawyers have described as a retaliatory plan to deport him to Liberia.

The administration told Xinis in March that it wanted to send Abrego Garcia to Liberia and asked her to dissolve her order blocking his removal from the United States. In court documents, the administration said the Liberian government had agreed to take him and was prepared to charter a plane for the transfer.

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran and married father of three from Maryland, was in the United States legally with a green card and had not been charged with a crime when he was sent in 2025 to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison. He was eventually returned to Maryland, but the administration has continued to pursue his removal. President Donald Trump has publicly called Abrego Garcia a member of the MS-13 gang. The Department of Justice later brought human trafficking charges against him stemming from a Tennessee traffic stop that never produced citations or charges; a federal judge dismissed that indictment as vindictive prosecution. The government has appealed that ruling.

In court filings ahead of Tuesday’s hearing, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have framed the Liberia proposal as retribution. “The record in this case shows that the government is trying to abuse its immigration powers to punish Petitioner Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia,” they wrote, adding that “he had the audacity to challenge the Government in court last year when it unlawfully removed him to El Salvador.”

His lawyers have also pointed to what they characterized as a pattern of African destinations the administration has proposed for their client — first Uganda, then Eswatini, then Ghana, and now Liberia — while ignoring what they say is a ready alternative. “If the Government truly wanted to remove Abrego Garcia from the United States, it would have sent him to Costa Rica in August 2025 when he designated it,” his lawyers wrote. “Costa Rica has agreed to accept Abrego Garcia and has offered him refugee status and legal residency.”

A Justice Department lawyer told the court, however, that there were no discussions of sending Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica. The department has said in filings that Xinis should deny his motions because “his claims fail as a matter of law.”

Abrego Garcia is not in custody.