GREENBELT, Md. (AP) — A federal judge in Maryland on Monday sought assurances that the government will not deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia before she has lifted an injunction barring his removal from the U.S.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement filed a notice late last week of their plan to deport him to the West African nation of Liberia as early as Friday. It's the latest in a series of African countries the agency has designated as possible destinations for the Salvadoran national.
Abrego Garcia has an American wife and child and 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. Earlier this year, his mistaken deportation to El Salvador, where he was held in a notoriously brutal prison despite having no criminal record, galvanized opposition to President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. Facing mounting public pressure and a court order, the Trump administration brought him back to the U.S. in June.
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 has promised he would welcomed as a legal immigrant and not re-deported to El Salvador.
“Any insight you can shed on why we're continuing this hearing when you could deport him to a third country tomorrow?” Xinis asked government attorneys. 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.
Government attorneys, including Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew C. Ensign and Deputy Assistant Attorney General Jonathan Guynn, didn't immediately have an answer but suggested it could be part of an upcoming court filing.
In the meantime, the attorneys said ICE is preparing to interview Abrego Garcia after he filed an official notice expressing fear of 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 there. However, they are not satisfied by what they have received. He hinted that the Liberian government has only agreed to take Abrego Garcia for a limited time.
The 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. But in June, a divided Supreme Court allowed the swift removal of immigrants to countries other than their homelands and with minimal notice.
When Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S. in June, he was charged in Tennessee with human smuggling. He has pleaded not guilty and asked the judge to dismiss that case. A hearing on the motion to dismiss is set for next week, and Xinis noted the fact that the government seems ready to deport him just prior to that, saying his removal would be the end of the criminal case.
“It doesn’t pass the sniff test that there hasn’t been some coordination” Xinis said, noting that the hearing in the criminal case was “common knowledge."
“If I don’t lift the injunction, you are abiding by it, and he’s not going to be removed? Is that right?” she asked the government attorneys. They agreed.
In a separate action in immigration court, Abrego Garcia has applied for asylum in the United States.
FILE - Activists rally outside of the U.S. District Court District of Maryland ahead of an evidentiary hearing where attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia will seek his immediate release from immigration detention, Oct. 10, 2025, in Greenbelt, Md. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
FILE - Kilmar Abrego Garcia attends a protest rally at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore, Aug. 25, 2025, to support Abrego Garcia. (AP Photo/Stephanie Scarbrough, File)
NEW YORK (AP) — An emotional plea by Iranian filmmaker Jafar Panahi and moving words from Ryan Coogler on the violence in Minneapolis stirred a National Board of Review Awards ceremony Tuesday in which Paul Thomas Anderson’s “One Battle After Another” was again crowned the best film of the year.
Coming two days after Sunday’s Golden Globes, the annual, untelevised New York gala, held in the cavernous midtown banquet all Cipriani 42nd Street and hosted by Willie Geist, played out as a more intimate and frank-spoken alternative.
The winners themselves were already announced, so the night was always going to belong to “One Battle After Another.” The National Board of review, a group that is made up of film enthusiasts and dates to 1909, not only named it 2025’s best film but awarded the best actor prize to Leonardo DiCaprio, best director to Anderson, best supporting actor to Benicio Del Toro and breakthrough performer to Chase Infiniti.
Yet in an ongoing parade of awards for “One Battle After Another,” its night at the NBRs still stood out. The surprise presenter of the movie’s best film award was Martin Scorsese, who praised “the audacity” of Anderson’s narratives and the accomplishment of his latest.
“Like all great films, it can’t really be compared to anything else,” Scorsese said. “It stands alone. It’s a great American film.”
Anderson, trying to take in the wealth of honors, attempted to describe what “ One Battle After Another,” his father-daughter tale of revolution, might represent. His answer came in pointing out his own daughter, sitting at his table.
“I don’t know what our movie is about, but I do know it’s about loving your kids,” Anderson said.
For many of the honorees, the world outside the starry banquet weighed heavily. Coogler’s speech was among the night’s most poignant. The “Sinners” director was honored for his screenplay for the vampire thriller and was introduced by the film’s star, longtime collaborator Michael B. Jordan.
Both were honored 13 years earlier by the board for their first movie together, “ Fruitvale Station.” Recalling that film, based on the true story of the 2009 killing of Oscar Grant by a Bay Area Rapid Transit police officer in Oakland, California, Coogler turned to the recent fatal shooting of Renee Nicole Good by an immigration enforcement agent in Minneapolis.
“I was young and naive, and I thought the movie was going to change the world and make it so you didn’t see people executed by civil service on camera anymore,” Coogler said. “I was proven wrong again and again. And it’s tough to be here and not think about Minnesota.”
“I can’t be here and not think about Renee,” Coogler added.
Still, the ceremony’s most powerful words came from Panahi, the dissident Iranian filmmaker who for nearly two decades worked clandestinely in his native country while being placed under house arrest and jailed. Panahi’s latest, “ It Was Just an Accident,” was awarded best international film.
The movie, inspired by Panahi's own imprisonment, is a revenge drama about stopping the cycle of violence and oppression in Iran. On Tuesday the death toll from a nationwide crackdown on demonstrators in that country surpassed 2,500, according to activists.
“As we stand here, the state of Iran is gunning down protesters and a savage massacre continues blatantly on the streets of Iran,” Panahi said. “Today the real scene is not on screens but on the streets of Iran. The Islamic Republic has caused a bloodbath to delay its collapse.”
“This is no longer a metaphor,” he continued. “This is not a story. This is not a film. This is a reality written with bullets day after day.”
Panahi called on the film community to speak out and “use any voice and any platform you have.”
“Today, cinema has the power to stand by defenseless people,” Panahi said. “Let’s stand by them.”
Panahi’s remarks, delivered through an interpreter, shook the audience. And when the next award went to Clint Bentley and Greg Kwedar, for adapted screenplay for their plaintive Pacific Northwest period drama “Train Dreams,” the filmmakers seemed to cut short their speech, which was partially about how making the movie and then promoting it through awards season meant sacrificing time with their young children.
“When the world is kind of burning down, it can feel frivolous at times,” Bentley said. “I just want to say thank you most of all to Mr. Panahi for reminding us for what we can do with the medium and why it can be worth doing.”
Jafar Panahi attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Leonardo DiCaprio attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Ryan Coogler attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Chase Infiniti attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Michael B. Jordan attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Benicio Del Toro attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Leonardo DiCaprio attends the National Board of Review Awards gala at Cipriani 42nd Street on Tuesday, Jan. 13, 2026, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
Sara Murphy, from left, Teyana Taylor, Paul Thomas Anderson, and Chase Infiniti pose in the press room with the award for best motion picture – musical or comedy for "One Battle After Another" during the 83rd Golden Globes on Sunday, Jan. 11, 2026, at the Beverly Hilton in Beverly Hills, Calif. (AP Photo/Chris Pizzello)
