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Judge tosses federal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia
By Jacob Rosen Justice Department Reporter Jake Rosen is a reporter covering the Department of Justice. He was previously a campaign digital reporter covering President Trump's 2024 campaign and also served as an associate producer for "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan." Read Full Bio Updated on: May 22, 2026 / 4:31 PM EDT / CBS News Add CBS News on Google Washington — A federal judge in Tennessee on Friday tossed out an indictment charging Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man mistakenly deported by the Trump administration last year, with human smuggling.U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw granted Abrego Garcia's effort to dismiss the criminal charges on the ground that the Justice Department's prosecution was vindictive. Crenshaw had already ruled that the Salvadoran man demonstrated that the prosecution may be vindictive, which left it up to the government to rebut that presumption. But in his decision, the judge concluded that prosecutors failed to meet that burden, writing "the evidence before this Court sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power."The decision is a massive victory for Abrego Garcia, whose immigration case became a flashpoint in President Trump's sweeping immigration crackdown."Justice is a big word and an even bigger promise to fulfill; and I am grateful that today, justice has taken a step forward," he said in a statement following the ruling.Abrego Garcia was charged last year with two counts of human smuggling stemming from a November 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, where he was pulled over by state Highway Patrol and was found to have numerous people in his vehicle. He pleaded not guilty.The indictment came after Abrego Garcia was removed from the U.S. in March 2025 and flown to El Salvador, where he was initially held at a notorious supermax prison. But an immigration judge had granted Abrego Garcia a legal status that forbade immigration authorities from deporting him to his home country, and a Trump administration official acknowledged his removal to El Salvador was a mistake. Abrego Garcia filed a civil lawsuit in Maryland challenging his deportation, and a federal judge ordered the Trump administration in April 2025 to facilitate his return back to the U.S. The Department of Homeland Security, however, resisted doing so for months, but eventually returned him to the U.S. to face criminal charges two months later.He has since been intertwined in civil and criminal legal fights, and held on separate occasions ...
Judge dismisses trafficking charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia - NBC4 ...
A federal judge dismissed human trafficking charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, finding that the investigation into Abrego’s alleged human trafficking done by prosecutors in the Middle District of Tennessee with the support of counterparts in Washington was “tainted.” Abrego's arrest in Maryland and mistaken deportation to El Salvador last March, as News4 and Telemundo44 were first to report, made him the face of the immigration debate under the second Trump administration and kicked off a legal battle that continues more than a year later. In court documents obtained by NBC News and News4, the federal judge called the case "vindictive," "selective" and "in violation of the Fifth Amendment's Due Process Clause." “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,” U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw writes. Immigration and Customs Enforcement picked up Abrego on March 12, 2025, near the College Park IKEA. According to Abrego's wife, he had just left the house with his young son and was heading to the bus stop to pick up his older kids. The following weekend, Abrego's wife said, El Salvador's president posted a video to X that showed her husband being frog walked by guards in the notorious Salvadoran prison CECOT. His wife had no idea where he was until she recognized him in the video. Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an El Salvadoran immigrant at the center of a legal battle that could reshape American immigration policy. Here’s what you need to know. His deportation violated his protected immigration status, which had been "withholding of removal" since 2019. A U.S. immigration judge placed that order on Abrego to shield him from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faces threats of gang violence there. The Trump administration admitted it was an "administrative error," but claimed he was in MS-13, and dragged his return on for months as the legal case to return Abrego continued. The human trafficking charges in Tennessee were brought against Abrego the same day he returned to the U.S. in June 2025. The charges stemmed from a 2022 traffic stop for speeding, during which Abrego was driving a vehicle with nine passengers. Police in Tennessee suspected human smuggling, but he was allowed to drive on. Abrego's lawyers argued for the case's dismissal on the grounds of "vindictive prosecution," calling the smuggling charges "prepo...
Judge Dismisses Criminal Case Against Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia ...
AdvertisementSKIP ADVERTISEMENTThe move deals an embarrassing blow to the Trump administration, which made the Maryland man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the face of its deportation campaign.Listen · 2:36 min Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia outside a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement in Baltimore last year.Credit...Tierney L. Cross/The New York TimesMay 22, 2026, 3:40 p.m. ETA federal judge on Friday dismissed the criminal case against the immigrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, ruling that the Trump administration had brought human smuggling charges against him as part of a vindictive effort to punish him for challenging his wrongful deportation to El Salvador last year.The ruling by the judge, Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr., was a stinging rebuke of both the Justice Department and its top official, Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general. Judge Crenshaw singled out Mr. Blanche for criticism in his 32-page opinion, pointing to statements he had made that prosecutors reawakened a dormant investigation into Mr. Abrego Garcia only after a different judge in Maryland questioned the administration’s decision to deport him — along with scores of other immigrants — to a notorious Salvadoran prison in March 2025.Mr. Abrego Garcia, who is still fighting the administration’s efforts to expel him from the country, is perhaps the best-known symbol of President Trump's aggressive deportation agenda. And his release from criminal charges because of what Judge Crenshaw called their “vindictive taint” was another blow to Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown, which had already been battered by, among other things, the killings of two protesters in Minnesota by federal agents.Judge Crenshaw opened his ruling by quoting Robert H. Jackson, a former attorney general and Supreme Court justice whose reputation for probity has made him something like the patron saint of federal prosecutors.“Then-Attorney General Robert H. Jackson warned his fellow prosecutors long ago of the danger of picking the person first and the crime second,” Judge Crenshaw wrote. “‘Therein is the most dangerous power of the prosecutor: that he will pick people that he thinks he should get, rather than pick cases that need to be prosecuted.’”“That,” the judge concluded, “is the situation here.”Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lead lawyer, Sean Hecker, hailed the decision and expressed his gratitude for an “independent judiciary” willing to stand up to the administration.“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a victim of a politicized, ...
US judge dismisses indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Judge says the human smuggling probe was reopened after the Salvadoran national filed his lawsuit against his deportation.A United States judge has dismissed an indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia after finding that he would not have been prosecuted if he had not challenged his deportation.On Friday, US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw said the Department of Justice only reopened its human smuggling probe stemming from a 2022 traffic stop after Salvadoran national Abrego Garcia filed his lawsuit.Recommended Stories list of 3 itemslist 1 of 3Did US courts back Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s El Salvador deportation?list 2 of 3Kilmar Abrego Garcia freed from US immigration detention, returns homelist 3 of 3US judge orders release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from immigration detentionend of list“The court does not reach its conclusion lightly,” Crenshaw 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.”Last year, Abrego Garcia became a symbol for President Donald Trump’s drive to clamp down on illegal migration and was sent to a mega prison in El Salvador despite a prior court banning him from being returned there due to a risk of persecution.While the Trump administration brought Abrego Garcia back to the US in June of the same year, his return came only after prosecutors had secured a criminal indictment charging him with human smuggling and conspiracy to commit human smuggling.Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty to the claim and argued that he was being prosecuted in retaliation for suing the government to be returned to the US from El Salvador.In the ruling to dismiss the indictment, Crenshaw wrote that the timing of the charges was central to the “presumption of vindictiveness”.With Homeland Security already aware of the traffic stop two years ago and having closed the case against Abrego Garcia when it deported him, the case was only reopened once the US Supreme Court had ruled that he be returned from El Salvador.Abrego Garcia’s deportation had violated a 2019 immigration court order that granted him protection against being returned to his home country after a judge found that he faced danger from a gang that targeted his family.Despite his return to the US and his family, Trump officials have said that Abrego Garcia cannot remain in the country and have pledged to deport him again to a third country, a country where the person does not h...
