By Anthony Stephens, senior justice correspondent with New Narratives
Summary:
 Civil society leaders said the Boakai government’s decision to “voluntarily” accept
Salvadoran immigrant Kilmar Armando Abrego García—a symbol of Trump’s hardline
deportation agenda – violated the man’s human rights and were made under threat of
retaliation
 Liberia’s acceptance of Garcia came after other African countries refused to take him
 The decision followed Foreign Minister Sara Beysolow Nyanti’s meeting with Secretary of
State Marco Rubio
Liberian human rights activists have had mixed reactions to the government’s announcement
Friday that it had agreed to accept Kilmar Armando Abrego García, an immigrant to America
who has become a face of the Trump administration’s aggressive policy to deport millions of
people in the United States illegally.
Garcia shot to global attention in March when the administration sent him to a notorious
detention center in El Salvador despite a 2019 U.S. court order that had ruled he could not be
returned there because of a credible threat of persecution. He was eventually returned to the
U.S., and the government subsequently arrested him on new charges. He has not been found
guilty of any crime. The Trump administration has since pressured governments around the

world to take third-country nationals despite them having no association with the country in a
push that many human rights activists have condemned.
“I think it’s a moral failure,” said John Stewart, a human rights activist and commissioner on the
country’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission. “America preaches democracy and human
rights. I think that’s a violation of the man’s rights no matter how we are trying to polish it.”
Stewart said Liberia had little choice. “Saying no to the U.S. secretary of state could have
adverse implications for the Liberian government, given all we’ve seen from the Trump
administration. This comes at a time when Liberia is seeking a loan from the International
Monetary Fund and qualification for a new Millennium Challenge Compact. Whether such
considerations were factored into the discussions is unclear— however it cannot be dismissed
by a wave of the hand.”
But others, defended the government’s move. Kanio Bai Gbala, an assistant professor of law at
the Louis Arthur Grimes School of Law at the University of Liberia, called the decision consistent
with the country’s humanitarian values.
“Liberia’s decision reflects our proud tradition as a refuge for those in need and aligns with
international humanitarian norms,” Gbala said in WhatsApp messages. He rejected the
suggestion the government felt pressured. “There is no credible evidence to suggest that the
Liberian government was pressured into accepting Garcia. The relationship between Liberia and
the United States has always been anchored in mutual respect and partnership, not coercion.”
Garcia traveled to the United States in around 2011 when he was a teenager, to join a U.S.
citizen brother. Both claimed to be fleeing gang violence in El Salvador. Courts have found no
evidence of Trump administration’s claims that he was a member of a Latin American gang or
transported undocumented immigrants to the United States for money in 2022. In April, U.S.
immigration officers admitted to an “administrative error” in deporting him to El Salvado. A
federal judge ordered his release in June, after the U.S. Supreme Court had directed the Trump
administration to “facilitate” his return to the United States. He was subsequently arrested on
new charges. Garcia has repeatedly proclaimed his innocence.
Garcia is married to an American citizen and has three children with profound health
challenges. Opponents of the Trump administration’s effort to deport millions of migrants in
the country illegally say the government is singling Garcia out in an effort to intimidate other
migrants in the country illegally into self-deporting.
“The government disappeared Kilmar to a foreign prison in violation of a court order,” said
Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, an attorney for Abrego Garcia, in a statement to C.B.S. News.
“Due process means the chance to defend yourself before you’re punished, not after. This is an
abuse of power, not justice.”

According to the New York Times, Costa Rica, a middle-income Central American country, has
agreed to take Garcia, and he agreed to go there. But the Trump administration has sought to

send him to Liberia – one of the world’s poorest countries, in a continent with which he has no
connection.
The Liberian government said Friday that it had “voluntarily” accepted to Garcia as soon as
October 31 st but it is likely that timeline will be delayed by legal action. At Friday’s press
conference, Oswald Tweh, Liberia’s justice minister, said García “is coming to Liberia not as a
prisoner” and that he “will move about freely,” without “harassment or intimidation.”
In a statement and at a subsequent press conference, the Liberian government denied coming
under any pressure from Washington, saying it had acted “in good faith and solely on
humanitarian grounds”. Senior officials said that Garcia was only coming for a temporary stay.
“This decision was reached after extensive consultations with relevant national and
international stakeholders, reflecting Liberia’s enduring commitment to upholding the
principles of human dignity, international solidarity, and compassion in times of distress,” said
the statement. “Abrego Garcia will not be returned to any country where he may face a
substantial risk of persecution, torture, or other serious harm.”

The Liberian government’s announcement came a little over a week after Sara Beysolow Nyanti,
its Foreign Minister, met with Marco Rubio, the U.S. secretary of state, in Washington. At a press
conference in Monrovia a few days later, Nyanti hinted at the possibility of Liberia accepting a
Oswald Tweh, Liberia’s justice minister, addressed the media on the country’s decision to accept Garcia on Friday
alongside Jerolinmek Piah, the information minister and Sara Beysolow Nyanti, the foreign minister.

third country national, saying “I wouldn’t be surprised because the U.S. is asking partners,” and
adding that “the immigration discussion is a global one with all of the partners working
together.”

Lawyers for the U.S. Department of Home Security told the United States District Court in
Greenbelt, Maryland — which is hearing García’s case — that Liberia had agreed to accept him.
They described Liberia as “a thriving democracy and one of the United States’s closest partners
on the African continent.”
Liberia’s acceptance of Garcia comes after the Trump administration failed to reach agreements
with Uganda, Eswatini and Ghana to take him, according to the New York Times. It also comes
more than four months after the Trump administration included Liberia on a list of 36 countries
whose citizens could face potential travel ban to the U.S.
After the U.S.-Africa Summit in July, President Joseph Nyuma Boakai told FrontPage Africa that
the question of accepting third-country nationals had come up during his meeting with
President Trump.
Sara Beysolow Nyanti, Liberia’s foreign minister, and Marco Rubio, U.S. secretary of state, following a
meeting in Washington D.C. credit: Liberian Foreign Ministry.

“I didn’t get the impression that the Americans were putting a gun to anybody’s head to sign
anything,” Boakai said. Still, he acknowledged that the issue “is something we have to think
about. If and when they decide to ask us, we will know how to respond.”

This story is a collaboration with New Narratives as part of the“Investigating Liberia” project. Funding was provided by the Swedish Embassy in Liberia. The funder had no say in the story’s content.