The Trump administration is appealing the decision to dismiss the charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia. A federal judge in Tennessee had found that the government brought the case against the Maryland man only after he won his wrongful deportation case.
Immigration officials deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador last March, despite a court order that he remain in the U.S. over fears of gang violence in his native country. His case became a galvanizing force for critics of the Trump administration’s hardline immigration policy.
After the Supreme Court ordered Abrego Garcia be returned to the U.S., prosecutors charged him with human smuggling based on a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. A federal investigation into Abrego Garcia began two and a half years after the fact.
“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,” Judge Waverly Crenshaw wrote in the May 22 ruling.
Since the charges were filed, Crenshaw said that prosecutors had gone back and forth on whether they want to keep Abrego Garcia in the U.S. to face trial or deport him without prosecution. A ruling on his motion for pre-trial release dragged for months because of concerns the Trump administration would deport Abrego Garcia to a third country before his trial.
The U.S. Department of Justice filed its appeal Monday, arguing that Crenshaw’s decision did not follow Supreme Court precedent.
At the same time, a judge in Maryland has ruled that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot deport Abrego Garcia until at least October.
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