Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who has lived in Maryland for years with his U.S. citizen wife and young son, who has autism, was arrested in Baltimore in March 2025 and mistakenly deported to El Salvador's CECOT prison despite a 2019 court order protecting him, an error ICE later admitted. Following public pressure and a Supreme Court order, he was returned to the U.S. in June 2025, after which federal prosecutors indicted him on human smuggling charges in Tennessee. Costa Rica offered him refugee status in August 2025, but the administration instead pursued deporting him to Liberia. A judge ordered his release from ICE custody in December 2025 after finding government lawyers misled the court, and later blocked his re-detention and deportation to Liberia. A federal judge dismissed the smuggling charges in May 2026, finding them a vindictive response to his legal challenges, a ruling the government is appealing to the Sixth Circuit. A federal court hearing in Greenbelt, Maryland, meant to determine whether he would be deported to Liberia was abruptly canceled, as his legal team seeks a permanent injunction and argues he should instead be sent to Costa Rica.