A federal judge in Tennessee has dismissed criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia related to human smuggling and conspiracy, saying the Department of Justice pursued the case only after the illegal alien won a lawsuit involving his wrongful deportation to El Salvador in March 2025.
U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., in his ruling, said the trafficking case was “vindictive.” Abrego Garcia previously won his wrongful deportation case out of Maryland at the end of last year, which required authorities to coordinate his return to the U.S.
“The evidence before this Court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power,” Crenshaw said, granting Abrego Garcia’s motion of dismissal.
While there is not evidence of “actual vindictiveness,” according to Crenshaw, the Trump administration was not able to refute the “presumption of vindictiveness.” That alone is grounds to throw out the case, Crenshaw said.
“Instead of investigating the November 2022 traffic stop to identify who was responsible for the human smuggling, [U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd] Blanche started the investigation to implicate Abrego,” Crenshaw wrote. “He did so to justify the Executive Branch’s decision to remove him to El Salvador.”
There was significant proof, Crenshaw said, that the human trafficking investigation was only re-opened after Abrego Garcia won his high profile immigration case out of Maryland. There were also statements from Blanche corroborating the assertion that the government re-opened the 2022 traffic stop case in light of the Maryland judge’s decision, according to the ruling.
Homeland Security Investigations opened the original probe into Abrego Garcia in December 2022, around three weeks after a state trooper stopped Abrego Garcia and eight other Latino men in a van on I-40. Abrego Garcia was ultimately deported March 2025, but a Maryland judge said Immigration and Customs Enforcement lacked a removal order predicating Abrego Garcia’s arrest and deportation — and the investigation was closed.
“From the time [an HSI agent] reopened the case, the investigation was marked by retaliatory taint,” Crenshaw wrote. “Blanche’s words directly confirm that the Executive Branch reopened the criminal investigation because the Judicial Branch required the Executive Branch to facilitate Abrego’s return from El Salvador.”
As of now, the criminal case is over, unless the DOJ successfully appeals to higher court. Abrego Garcia, however, is still working through deportation proceedings, as he agreed to be sent to Costa Rica.
Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen who came to the United States as a teenager, and per a 2019 court order, cannot be deported back to that country. An immigration judge determined that Abrego Garcia and his family would be in danger and potentially persecuted back in El Salvador. Abrego Garcia, however, was deported anyway.
After Abrego Garcia was returned from El Salvador, following the U.S. Supreme Court upholding a court order prompting his return, he was detained again. The Trump administration petitioned to deport Abrego Garcia to Liberia, explaining the country confirmed he would not be persecuted there. At the time, he was being held at an immigration facility in Pennsylvania.
The Department of Justice did not immediately respond to National Review‘s request for comment.