A federal judge in Tennessee ruled Friday that the foreign national from El Salvador, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, has shown a sufficient evidentiary basis to proceed with claims that his criminal prosecution was brought for “vindictive” and politically retaliatory reasons by the Trump administration.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, an appointee of former President Barack Obama based in Nashville, granted Abrego Garcia’s request for discovery and an evidentiary hearing, writing that the totality of events, including public comments by senior administration officials, raised a “realistic likelihood of vindictiveness.” The court stopped short of dismissing the charges but said more evidence must be considered before deciding whether to throw out the case entirely.
The ruling applies only to Abrego Garcia’s criminal case in Tennessee, where he is charged with conspiracy and unlawful transportation of undocumented immigrants. It does not affect his separate immigration proceedings, where a Baltimore immigration judge this week rejected his final asylum bid, allowing his order of removal to remain in place pending appeal.
Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national and illegal immigrant, illegally entered the United States in 2012 and later settled in Maryland. He was deported in March in violation of a prior immigration court order that narrowly prohibited his removal to his home country.
He returned to the United States in June after the Supreme Court sided with a judge who previously ruled the government should “facilitate” his return. On the day of his arrival, federal prosecutors indicted him on human smuggling charges based on a 2022 traffic stop. He has pleaded not guilty.
In court filings, federal prosecutors have accused Abrego Garcia of being a “known MS-13 gang member” who has “personally participated in violent crime, including murder.” They claim he trafficked women, children, firearms, and narcotics — and that he is the subject of an ongoing investigation into solicitation of child pornography. DHS has described him as a “serial domestic abuser” and “child predator,” noting a previous restraining order that was filed against him by his U.S.-citizen wife, who supports his effort to remain in the country.
Crenshaw noted that Trump administration and Justice Department officials “celebrated” the criminal charges in public statements and that Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche “strikingly” admitted in a television interview that the investigation began after a Maryland judge questioned the legality of Abrego Garcia’s deportation.
“This could be direct evidence of vindictiveness,” Crenshaw wrote, adding that Blanche’s “remarkable statements” may establish that the charges were motivated by retaliation for Abrego Garcia’s legal challenge, “rather than a genuine desire to prosecute him for alleged criminal misconduct.”
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have long argued that DHS and DOJ officials targeted their client for successfully suing to return to the U.S. and embarrassed the administration’s immigration enforcement strategy.
IMMIGRATION JUDGE ALLOWS REMOVAL ORDER TO STAND IN KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA CASE
“The government is attempting to use this case — and this Court — to punish Mr. Abrego for successfully fighting his unlawful removal,” they wrote in an earlier filing. “That is a constitutional violation of the most basic sort.”
Abrego Garcia remains in ICE custody in Pennsylvania pending the outcome of both the immigration and criminal proceedings, though the government has indicated he will be removed to a third country if he loses his appeal of his immigration case.
