An Obama-appointed judge dismissed the human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia on Friday, ruling that the Justice Department’s prosecution of the El Salvadoran illegal immigrant was vindictive.
“The evidence before this Court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power,” Nashville District Judge Waverly Crenshaw wrote in his 32-page order granting Abrego Garcia’s request to dismiss the case.
Crenshaw determined prosecutors would not have brought the case alleging Abrego Garcia was part of a conspiracy to transport illegal immigrants from Texas to Maryland had his wrongful March 2025 deportation to El Salvador not been successfully challenged.
“The Court does not reach its conclusion lightly,” the judge wrote. “The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution.”
The human smuggling case against Abrego Garcia stemmed from a November 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. There were nine passengers in the car when Abrego Garcia was pulled over for speeding, and Tennessee Highway Patrol officers discussed their suspicions of smuggling among themselves but allowed him to continue on his way.
Crenshaw noted a federal investigation into whether Abrego Garcia was smuggling migrants when he was pulled over had been “closed” and reopened “only after Abrego succeeded in vindicating his rights.”
“What the Government labels as ‘new evidence’ was not new as a matter of law,” the judge said. “The prosecutor’s subjective good faith does not cure the retaliatory taint.”
“Absent [Acting Attorney General Todd] Blanche’s tainted investigation … [prosecutors] would not have sought an indictment against Abrego.”
Crenshaw argued the June 2025 indictment against Abrego Garcia “provided the Executive Branch cover” to comply with a federal judge’s order to facilitate the migrant’s return to the United States after he was wrongfully deported to El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia’s deportation violated a 2019 immigration court order granting him protection from deportation to his home country, after the judge found he faced danger there from a gang that targeted his family.
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.
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“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a victim of a politicized, vindictive White House and its lawyers at what used to be an independent Justice Department,” his criminal defense attorneys said in a statement after Friday’s ruling. “We are so pleased that he is a free man.”
The Justice Department, meanwhile, vowed to appeal, calling Crenshaw’s order “wrong and dangerous.”
Trump administration officials have vowed to deport Abrego Garcia to a third country, possibly Liberia, after the Tennessee case is wrapped up.
With Post wires
