The Department of Justice on Friday urged a federal judge to dissolve the injunction that shields Kilmar Abrego Garcia from detention, clearing the path for the 31-year-old to be deported to Liberia.
The filing, obtained by Fox News Digital, argues that the court's own order is the only thing standing between Abrego Garcia and removal from the country, and that the judge cannot simultaneously block deportation and then hold the government responsible for prolonged detention.
The DOJ put it plainly in its filing:
"The Court cannot both impose the impediment that delays removal and consequently prolongs detention and, at the same time, hold that the resulting detention is impermissibly prolonged."
That is the core of the government's argument, and it exposes a legal absurdity that deserves more attention than it has received. A judge blocks the executive branch from removing someone, then faults the executive branch for not removing him fast enough. The administration has asked the court to rule on the dissolution request by April 17.
Abrego Garcia has become a flash point in the national immigration debate since March 2025, when the administration deported him to a prison in his native El Salvador.
That deportation violated a 2019 court order, which had determined he faced danger from a gang that had threatened his family. Officials acknowledged the deportation was an "administrative error." The Supreme Court later ruled that the administration had to work to bring him back to the United States.
He was returned to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee related to a 2022 traffic stop. He has pleaded not guilty and is seeking dismissal of those charges on the grounds of vindictive and selective prosecution. The administration claims he is a member of MS-13. His lawyers deny it.
In December, he was released from detention because the Trump administration had not obtained the final notice of removal order needed to deport him to a third country.
Since then, he has been under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement. Acting ICE Director Todd Lyons said he will instead be removed to Liberia.
Last month, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis agreed to convert her previous emergency order blocking ICE from immediately detaining Abrego Garcia into a longer-term form of injunctive relief sought by his lawyers.
Xinis said the Trump administration failed to provide the court any "good reason to believe" it plans to remove him to a third country in the "reasonably foreseeable future."
Her language was pointed:
"Their persistent refusal to acknowledge Costa Rica as a viable removal option, their threats to send Abrego Garcia to African countries that never agreed to take him, and their misrepresentation to the Court that Liberia is now the only country available to Abrego Garcia, all reflect that whatever purpose was behind his detention, it was not for the 'basic purpose' of timely third-country removal."
She also accused the administration of having "made one empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa with no real chance of success."
The government's filing strikes at the foundation of Xinis's reasoning. The DOJ contends that the injunction itself is the obstacle, and that holding the administration accountable for a delay the court created is a contradiction the law does not support.
"Dissolution is also warranted because the Court's Memorandum Order failed to acknowledge that the Court's own prior injunction against removal is the sole impediment to Petitioner's prompt removal."
The filing went further, arguing that any permanent injunction against removal would be "in direct contradiction to established judicial norms, and a clear error of law."
This is the administration telling a federal judge, in plain terms, that the executive branch's authority to remove an illegal immigrant from the country is not hers to permanently override.
Abrego Garcia's attorney said in December that his client is willing to leave for Costa Rica. The 2019 court order prevents him from being deported to El Salvador, but it does not speak to every country on earth. Xinis has pointed to the administration's refusal to acknowledge Costa Rica as a viable option, framing that refusal as evidence that timely removal was never the real goal.
But a willingness to go to Costa Rica and Costa Rica's willingness to accept him are two different things. The judge's framing treats the administration's position as bad faith while taking the detainee's preference at face value.
That is a curious standard for a court to adopt when the question is whether the federal government can exercise its sovereign authority over immigration enforcement.
This case illustrates something conservatives have watched play out for years. A single federal judge, armed with an injunction, can functionally set immigration policy for the entire executive branch. The 2019 order was a legitimate legal protection.
The administrative error that led to the El Salvador deportation was a genuine mistake. But the legal apparatus that has grown around Abrego Garcia since his return to the United States looks less like justice and more like a mechanism designed to ensure he never leaves.
Consider where things stand:
Every door closes. Every alternative is dismissed. Every enforcement action is reframed as bad faith. The system doesn't just slow deportation. It creates a legal environment where deportation becomes functionally impossible while appearing procedurally intact.
The April 17 deadline will force Judge Xinis to confront the DOJ's argument directly. Either the injunction falls, and the government moves forward with removal to Liberia, or the court doubles down and the case almost certainly escalates. The DOJ's filing reads like an invitation for exactly that kind of confrontation.
One illegal immigrant. One 2019 order. One acknowledged error. And now years of litigation, a Supreme Court ruling, human smuggling charges, and a federal judge effectively dictating which countries the executive branch may negotiate with for removal.
This is what happens when the immigration system is designed not to function.
