A federal judge has dismissed a high-profile human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national whose previous deportation sparked a massive legal battle with the Trump administration.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw tossed the indictment on Friday, ruling that the government’s decision to prosecute Abrego Garcia amounted to “selective or vindictive prosecution.” The ruling effectively shuts down the criminal case, which centered on allegations that Abrego Garcia accepted money to transport nine illegal immigrants inside the United States.
The legal saga began with a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. While state troopers suspected Abrego Garcia of human smuggling during the stop, he was ultimately let go with just a speeding warning. A Department of Homeland Security agent later testified that the federal government did not actually launch an investigation into that incident until April 2025—immediately after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to return Abrego Garcia to the country.
READ: Court Blocks ICE From Re-Detaining Kilmar Abrego Garcia After Failed Africa Deportation Plans
Abrego Garcia had been deported to El Salvador last year in violation of a 2019 immigration court order. That 2019 order allowed him to live and work in the U.S. under Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision due to safety concerns in his home country, though it did not grant him legal residency. He originally entered the U.S. illegally as a teenager and currently has an American wife and child.
Following his forced return to the U.S., federal prosecutors leveled the smuggling and conspiracy charges against him. Abrego Garcia’s defense argued the timing of the charges was retaliatory, designed to punish him for winning his wrongful-deportation lawsuit.
Judge Crenshaw agreed, stating that without Abrego Garcia’s “successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the government would not have brought this prosecution.”
The judge pointed to statements from Trump administration officials as “cause for concern,” specifically citing comments by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche that appeared to link the criminal charges directly to Abrego Garcia’s successful lawsuit. First Assistant U.S. Attorney Rob McGuire attempted to block defense requests for internal Justice Department documents, maintaining that he alone made the decision to prosecute based strictly on the merits of the case. Crenshaw ultimately rejected the government’s claims that “new evidence” justified the delayed prosecution.
Despite the criminal case being thrown out, Abrego Garcia’s immigration status remains unresolved. Trump administration officials maintain that he has no legal right to remain in the country permanently and have vowed to deport him to a third nation, with Liberia recently proposed as the destination.
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