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US government attorneys on Tuesday told a federal judge the Department of Homeland Security still intends to deport Kilmar \u00c1brego Garc\u00eda to Liberia, despite a new agreement with Costa Rica<\/a> to accept deportees who cannot legally be returned to their home countries.<\/p>\n The Salvadorian national\u2019s case has become a focal point in the immigration debate after he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador<\/a> last year. Since his return, he has been fighting a second deportation to a series of African countries proposed by homeland security officials.<\/p>\n US district judge Paula Xinis, of Maryland, previously barred ICE from deporting him or detaining him. She has written that the agency has no viable plan to actually deport \u00c1brego Garc\u00eda, referring in February to \u201cone empty threat after another to remove him to countries in Africa<\/a> with no real chance of success\u201d.<\/p>\n \u00c1brego Garc\u00eda has argued that if he is going to be deported, it should be to Costa Rica, which previously agreed to accept him. But Todd Lyons, the acting head of US Customs and Immigration Enforcement, said in a March memo that deporting \u00c1brego Garc\u00eda to Costa Rica would be \u201cprejudicial to the United States\u201d.<\/p>\n