Kilmer Abrego Garcia leaves a check-in at the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency’s Baltimore field office, a day after a federal judge ordered his release from custody in Pennsylvania, Dec. 12, 2025, in Baltimore, Maryland.
Chip Somodevilla | Getty Images
A federal judge in Tennessee on Friday dismissed human smuggling charges against Salvadoran immigrant Kilmer Abrego Garcia, whose mistaken deportation by the Trump administration was the flashpoint for President Donald Trump’s broader immigration crackdown.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw ruled that the Justice Department’s charges against Abrego-Garcia were “retaliatory,” finding that the government would not have filed the suit if Abrego-Garcia had not challenged his deportation.
“Then-Attorney General Robert H. Jackson long ago warned his fellow prosecutors about the dangers of choosing people first and crimes second,” Crenshaw wrote at the beginning of his 32-page decision. “That’s the situation here.”
The Justice Department plans to appeal, saying in a statement: “Another activist judge has put politics ahead of public safety. The judge’s order is wrong and dangerous, and we will appeal.”
Crenshaw said records show the government closed its investigation into a traffic stop in Tennessee in November 2022 after Abrego-Garcia was deported from the United States, but reopened it after he sued the Trump administration over his deportation to El Salvador.
“Kilmer Abrego Garcia is a victim of a politicized and vindictive White House and its lawyers at what was once an independent Department of Justice,” Abrego Garcia’s legal team told MS NOW. “As this administration continues to chip away at our democracy, we remain grateful for an independent judiciary that calmly applies binding precedent to the facts.”
The ruling is a major legal victory for Abrego García, who was forcibly returned to El Salvador in March 2025 despite a prior court order barring the U.S. government from returning him there because he could face persecution.
The Trump administration then returned Abrego-Garcia to the United States in June 2025 after the Supreme Court ordered authorities to facilitate his return. But prosecutors first filed criminal charges against him for human smuggling.
Abrego-Garcia has pleaded not guilty and argued the charges were in retaliation for his fight to return to the United States, a position Crenshaw agreed with, resulting in a setback for the Justice Department, which had been in the spotlight for President Trump’s immigration case.
Crenshaw said in his ruling that the record “does not explain the change in the government’s position in firing Mr. Abrego without indicting him and then indicting him and not firing him,” adding that the “retaliatory stain” prompted the new investigation.
The judge also scrutinized the role of senior Justice Department officials, writing that statements by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche and actions of Acting Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh called into question the decision to reopen the investigation and seek charges.
“Objective and reliable evidence shows that Judge Mayne was involved in the investigation before McGuire,” Crenshaw wrote, referring to U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire, who led the prosecution.
Crenshaw added that Singh’s involvement “touched everything from the timing of the indictment to the nature of the potential charges.”
Trump did not bring up Abrego-Garcia during a speech in Suffern, New York, immediately after the charges were dropped, and continued to defend the aggressive immigration policies that sparked the case.
“Illegal aliens are everywhere, and people are being shot left and right,” Trump said on stage.
The White House withheld a statement from the Justice Department.
