Like NIKOTECH, Like Garcia Deal?

MONROVIA-NOVEMBER 2, 2025: As the Government of Liberia continues to amplify its diplomatic progress and successes through the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, including an agreement to host alleged El Salvadorian gang member, Abrego Garcia from the United States on “humanitarian grounds,” the controversial deal faces serious legal challenges, and could collapse like the much-publicized NIKOTECH scholarship scheme.

A federal judge in the state of Maryland on Monday, October 27, 2025, sought assurances that the U.S. Government will not deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia before an injunction barring his removal from the U.S. is lifted.

Western media report that Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed a notice of their plan to deport him to Liberia, the latest in a series of African countries the agency has designated as possible destinations for the Salvadoran national.

Abrego Garcia who has an American wife and child, has lived in Maryland for years, but he immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager.

In 2019, an immigration judge granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador, where he faces a “well-founded fear” of violence from a gang that targeted his family. His mistaken deportation to El Salvador, where he was held in a notoriously brutal prison galvanized opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown.

During a status conference on Monday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis questioned why the government does not simply deport Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica—a country he has said he is willing to go to because the government there has promised he would be welcomed as a legal immigrant and not re-deported to El Salvador.

She noted that both the government and Abrego Garcia were “about to burn significant resources” in fighting over whether he can legally be deported to Liberia.

Meanwhile, the Immigration & Custom Enforcement (ICE) was said to be preparing to interview Abrego Garcia after he filed an official notice expressing fear of his deportation to Liberia. His attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, told the judge they have received some confidential documents pertaining to assurances from the Liberian government about how Abrego Garcia would be treated. However, they are not satisfied by what they have received.

The Trump administration’s deportation agreements with so-called third countries have been contested in court by advocacy groups, who have argued that they violate due process rights and that immigrants are being sent to countries with long histories of human rights violations.

At home, there is apprehension and anxiety about the government’s offer or agreement to bring to Liberia, Mr. Garcia who is accused by the U.S. of being a member of the notorious MS-13 gang, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization. They see his alleged Link as a security threat.

Scores of Liberians from across the political divide, continue to express concern that the Garcia deal could make Liberia a site to dispose of U.S. deportees who are rejected by other African countries like Uganda and Ghana.

Like many other political, religious and community leaders, prominent economist, Samuel Jackson has wondered why would America, the most powerful country in the world, choose to send to Liberia a man that is considered a security threat to the United States.

“Why would the greatest country on the planet ask poor countries to take its rejects? Dangerous criminals. Why would citizens of any poor country support that for political reasons? Does this make any sense? Or Trump has invaded your brains. It’s not normal,” Mr. Jackson opined in a Facebook post).

There are fears that the Garcia saga, which is said to be one of the considerations and outcomes of Liberian government’s recent engage…

Mr. Garcia