Human smuggling case dismissed in Nashville over what judge called vindictive prosecution
A federal judge dismissed a human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, concluding that the Justice Department’s pursuit of criminal charges was designed to punish him for challenging a mistaken deportation to El Salvador. In a ruling issued in Nashville, Tennessee, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw said prosecutors sought the charges in a way he found tainted by “selective or vindictive prosecution,” and he granted Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss.
Crenshaw’s decision framed the timing and sequence of events around Abrego Garcia’s earlier legal fight over his removal. The judge said the evidence before the court “sadly reflects an abuse of prosecuting power,” and he tied the case to what he described as vindictiveness connected to Abrego Garcia’s successful lawsuit challenging his El Salvador deportation.
The ruling described an unusual rebuke of the Justice Department, which under President Donald Trump has faced repeated accusations that it targets defendants for political or other improper reasons. The Associated Press reported that the Trump administration touted the criminal charges last year at a press conference where then-Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “This is what American justice looks like.”
Crenshaw stopped short of finding the government acted with “actual vindictiveness,” a standard he said usually requires evidence that prosecutors admitted they brought charges in retaliation. But the judge said there was enough evidence for a presumption of vindictiveness, citing factors that included the timing of the indictment, statements made by then-U.S. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and what the judge described as sustained oversight by other top Justice Department officials.
The court said the government’s explanations were not convincing, including how prosecutors tried to rebut the presumption. The ruling said Homeland Security had been aware of a traffic stop involving Abrego Garcia for two years and had closed the case against him when he was deported. After the U.S. Supreme Court ruled he should be brought back to the United States, prosecutors reopened the case, but the judge said the government did not call the person who reopened the case and instead offered only “secondhand testimony.”
Prosecutors charged Abrego Garcia with human smuggling and conspiracy to commit human smuggling, according to the Associated Press account. Prosecutors said he accepted money to transport people within the United States who were in the country illegally, and the charges stemmed from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee for speeding, where body camera footage depicted a calm exchange and a later decision that allowed him to continue driving with a warning.
In the days following the criminal-court dismissal, Abrego Garcia’s defense attorneys said he was released and characterized the outcome as a victory against a politicized prosecution. In a statement after Friday’s ruling, Abrego Garcia’s lawyers said they were “so pleased that he is a free man,” and a supporter group, We are CASA, reported that Abrego Garcia thanked God and said, “Justice is a big word and an even bigger promise to fulfill; and I am grateful that today, justice has taken a step forward.”
The Associated Press reported that while Abrego Garcia won in criminal court, his immigration status and future in the United States remained uncertain. Barred from deporting him to El Salvador, administration officials have threatened to deport him to a series of African countries, most recently Liberia, according to the reporting. The case also referenced that his deportation violated a 2019 immigration court order protecting him from removal to El Salvador after a judge found he faced danger there from a gang that targeted his family.
The U.S. Department of Justice said it planned to appeal the dismissal, calling the judge’s order “wrong and dangerous.” The case now turns on how an appellate court addresses Crenshaw’s findings about presumptive vindictiveness and the relationship between Abrego Garcia’s deportation fight and the criminal charges that followed.