Trump administration urges judge to dissolve injunction blocking Abrego Garcia's deportation to Liberia

"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 DOJ wrote in a court filing obtained by Fox News Digital. 

"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.

"Any attempt by this Court to permanently enjoin the government from exercising its authority to remove the Petitioner from this country is in direct contradiction to established judicial norms, and a clear error of law."

The administration deported Abrego Garcia, who it claims is a member of MS-13, a year ago to a prison in his native El Salvador, but he was returned to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee related to a 2022 traffic stop despite at first saying the administration had no power to bring him back. 

His lawyers deny he is a member of MS-13.

The Supreme Court later ruled that the administration had to work to bring him back to the U.S.

He has pleaded not guilty on the human smuggling charges and is seeking dismissal of the charges on the grounds of vindictive and selective prosecution.

The 2019 court order prevents Abrego Garcia from being deported to El Salvador after an immigration judge determined he faced danger from a gang that had threatened his family. He immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager and has been under the supervision of Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

The government's "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," Xinis said in December.

The administration asked the judge to rule on its request to have the injunction dissolved by April 17.

Fox News Michael Sinkewicz, Louis Casiano, Breanne Deppisch and Jake Gibson contributed to this report.