For several months, lawyers for Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the immigrant who was wrongfully expelled to El Salvador last year, have been saying that their client would end his long-running legal fight against the Trump administration if only he could be deported to the country of his choosing, Costa Rica.

And for just as long, administration officials have refused to send him to Costa Rica, providing various reasons that was impossible and trying instead to expel him to a series of African nations to which he has no ties.

But on Tuesday, Markwayne Mullin, the new homeland security secretary, appeared to change course, suddenly telling Congress that his department had no problem sending Mr. Abrego Garcia to Costa Rica.

“If he’s willing to do that,” Mr. Mullin said, “we’ll be happy to send him.”

Mr. Mullin’s statements came in response to questions from Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, who has long worked to support Mr. Abrego Garcia, a resident of the state. It remained unclear whether the remarks reflected a genuine change of policy by the department or whether Mr. Mullin was simply unaware of the earlier position taken by other Trump officials. A department spokesman did not immediately respond to a message seeking comment.

Either way, Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers immediately sent a copy of Mr. Mullin’s remarks to Judge Paula Xinis, the Maryland federal judge handling the deportation case, who has previously pressed the administration on why it could not send him to Costa Rica.

Mr. Abrego Garcia is perhaps the best-known symbol of President Trump’s aggressive deportation agenda, and his serial courtroom battles against the administration have dragged on for more than a year, reaching all the way to the Supreme Court. When he was deported to El Salvador in March 2025 with scores of other immigrants, he ended up in a notorious prison where he, like many others, claimed to have been tortured.