Judge Throws Out Case Against Abrego Garcia

A human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation helped galvanize opposition to President Trump's immigration policies, was thrown out on Friday. US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, ruling in Nashville, granted Abrego Garcia's motion to dismiss for "selective or vindictive prosecution," the AP reports. Abrego Garcia's deportation to El Salvador last year became an embarrassment for Trump officials when they were ordered to return him to the US. Abrego Garcia claimed that both the timing of the criminal charges and inflammatory statements about him by top Trump officials demonstrated that the prosecution was vindictive.

Without Abrego Garcia's "successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the government would not have brought this prosecution," said Crenshaw, dismissing claims of new evidence against him. In earlier filings, Crenshaw wrote he had found evidence that the prosecution against Abrego Garcia "may be vindictive." The judge said many statements by Trump administration officials were concerning, including one by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche seeming to suggest the Justice Department charged Abrego Garcia because he won his wrongful-deportation case. Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen with an American wife and child who has lived in Maryland for years after immigrating to the US illegally as a teenager. The 2019 order allowed him to live and work in the US under Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision, but he was not given residency status.

Abrego Garcia was charged with human smuggling and conspiracy to commit human smuggling, with prosecutors claiming that he accepted money to transport within the US people who were in the country illegally. The charges stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding. A Department of Homeland Security agent testified at an earlier hearing that he did not begin investigating the traffic stop until after the US Supreme Court said in April 2025 that Trump's administration must work to bring Abrego Garcia back from El Salvador. Administration officials have said Abrego Garcia cannot remain in the US.