Greenbelt, Maryland - A federal judge in Maryland on Monday sought assurances that President Donald Trump's administration would not deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia before she has lifted an injunction blocking his removal from the country.

"If I don't lift the injunction, you are abiding by it, and he's not going to be removed? Is that right?" US District Judge Paula Xinis asked government attorneys, according to the Associated Press, to which they agreed.

The Trump administration late last week announced its intent to deport Abrego Garcia to Liberia as early as Friday.

The 30-year-old Salvadoran national has lived in Maryland for years. He has an American citizen wife, with whom he shares a child – also a US citizen.

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An immigration judge in 2019 granted him protected legal status barring his deportation back to El Salvador due to risk of harm by gangs.

The Trump administration has, nevertheless, tormented Abrego Garcia for months, accusing him – without providing proof – of being an MS-13 gang member.

Last March, the government wrongfully deported Abrego Garcia to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador, where he says he suffered torture and abuse. He was returned to the US in June and was immediately arrested on human smuggling charges in Tennessee – to which he has pleaded not guilty.

The Trump administration has since sought to deport him to various third countries, including Uganda, Eswatini, and now Liberia.

Abrego Garcia's attempted deportation comes ahead of a hearing next week on a motion to dismiss the human smuggling case. His removal from the US would put an end to the criminal case.

Xinis said that considering the timing, "it doesn't pass the sniff test that there hasn't been some coordination," as the upcoming hearing was "common knowledge," per AP.

The judge also wanted to know why the government did not deport Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica. He has agreed to such an arrangement because the country said it would accept him as a refugee and not transfer him back to El Salvador.

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"Any insight you can shed on why we're continuing this hearing when you could deport him to a third country tomorrow?" she asked.

Also on Monday, US District Court Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Tennessee determined that Attorney General Pamela Bondi and Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem had violated a local court rule that restricts comments by government officials relating to ongoing criminal cases, Politico reported.

Both Bondi and Noem have made a slew of accusations against Abrego Garcia, including that he is an "MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser, and child predator."

"Government employees have made extrajudicial statements that are troubling, especially where many of them are exaggerated if not simply inaccurate," Crenshaw wrote. "These statements made allegations regarding Abrego's 'character or reputation' and expressed government officials' views on Abrego’s 'guilt or innocence.'"

The judge said the comments endangered Abrego Garcia's constitutional right to an impartial jury.