A federal judge in Tennessee on Thursday threw out the human smuggling indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, accepting defense arguments that the Department of Justice pursued the case as punishment for his extensive legal fight against removal. The ruling, which the Associated Press first reported, closes a criminal prosecution that had stretched across state lines while Abrego Garcia fought to remain in the United States — a fight that began when he was swept off a Maryland street in 2019 and handed to immigration authorities.
Abrego Garcia, who fled El Salvador as a teenager, was arrested outside a hardware store, accused by local police of gang membership, and transferred to Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody. After years of immigration proceedings, a federal judge in 2025 issued an order barring his deportation. Despite that order, Abrego Garcia was flown to El Salvador in March 2025 under the Trump administration’s intensified removal operations. He was returned to the U.S. only after his attorneys secured emergency relief from the courts.
The Tennessee human smuggling charges were brought separately while Abrego Garcia was still detained. His legal team argued the indictment was retaliatory, pointing to the government’s pursuit of deportation to a succession of African nations — Liberia, Sudan, and others — after his return. The judge agreed, finding evidence that the charges were “vindictive” and dismissing them with prejudice, meaning they cannot be refiled.
Abrego Garcia remains in the United States as his attorneys press a civil lawsuit in Maryland that challenges the Department of Homeland Security’s attempts to remove him. That case, which has paused government efforts to deport him again, is expected to resume in the coming weeks.