The Trump administration’s Department of Justice asked a federal appeals court Monday to revive the human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, accusing an Obama-appointed judge of improperly second-guessing prosecutors and intruding on executive authority.
In a 68-page opening brief, the government asked the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals to reverse U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw’s May decision to dismiss a two-count indictment accusing Abrego Garcia of conspiring to transport illegal immigrants for financial gain and unlawfully transporting them.
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“The district court’s approach would, in multiple ways, violate the cardinal principle that ‘federal judges should not engage in Monday-morning quarterbacking’ of prosecutorial decisions,” the government wrote, citing a recent decision involving a judge’s dismissal of the Southern Poverty Law Center’s “vindictive” prosecution claim.
The appeal challenges Crenshaw’s conclusion that the prosecution was presumptively vindictive because it followed Abrego Garcia’s court-ordered return to the United States after he was removed to El Salvador. The government argues that separate litigation involving the government’s deportation effort should not shield him from an otherwise legitimate criminal investigation.
Associate Attorney General Stanley Woodward, listed as counsel for the U.S. in the appeal, said career prosecutors sought the indictment based on the evidence, the law, and their belief they could prove the charges beyond a reasonable doubt, not a vindictive motive.
“The ruling marks a dramatic expansion of the power of courts to dismiss serious criminal charges based on subjective assessments of a prosecutor’s motivations,” Woodward said in a statement accompanying the filing. He called it “an unwarranted intrusion into the Executive’s powers and responsibility to protect the public.”
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who entered the U.S. illegally, was subject to a final removal order but had received a limited withholding of removal in 2019. That protection barred his deportation to El Salvador because an immigration judge found his account of potential gang persecution there credible, though it did not prevent the government from removing him to another country.
During separate 2019 bond proceedings, Department of Homeland Security officials alleged he was a member of MS-13, relying in part on a Prince George’s County police gang field interview sheet. The immigration judge wrote that the determination “appears to be trustworthy” and was supported by other record evidence, denying him bond. Abrego Garcia has denied gang affiliation.
The government removed Abrego Garcia to El Salvador in March 2025 despite the country-specific protection order, an error it later acknowledged. He sued, and the Supreme Court ultimately left in place an order requiring the administration to facilitate his return to the U.S.
The DOJ now argues the court-ordered return did not require prosecutors to abandon a possible criminal case.
“Criminal illegal aliens are often prosecuted and then removed upon their release from prison,” the government wrote. “And should the government first pursue removal only, the process may hit a snag. If that happens, the government need not give up on addressing the problem. It can instead change course and prosecute.”
The case stems from a November 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. The government said Abrego Garcia was carrying multiple passengers with no luggage for an alleged long-distance trip, driving a vehicle registered to a convicted human trafficker, and traveling a route that did not match his account.
Authorities did not bring charges at the time. But after Abrego Garcia’s return, Acting U.S. Attorney Robert McGuire reviewed the stop and pursued further evidence, including phone records, license plate reader data, and witness accounts allegedly linking him to a smuggling operation. A grand jury returned the indictment in May 2025.
Crenshaw, who the Washington Examiner found donated more than $43,000 to Democratic causes, later dismissed the case after finding no actual vindictiveness but concluding the circumstances warranted a presumption of retaliation.
The judge cited in part the timing of the reopened investigation, public comments by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, and contacts between DOJ officials and McGuire’s office. The May dismissal was a setback for the administration’s effort to hold Abrego Garcia accountable through the criminal system, which would in turn make it easier for the government’s deportation effort.
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The appeal contends Crenshaw stretched the vindictive prosecution doctrine beyond its traditional limits. The government contends that McGuire, who made the charging decision, had no personal stake in Abrego Garcia’s civil deportation challenge and was not directed by the White House, DHS, or other DOJ leaders to seek an indictment.
The 6th Circuit has not ruled on the appeal. It is separate from Abrego Garcia’s continuing immigration case in Maryland, where the 4th Circuit last week left in place an injunction preventing his removal to Liberia while litigation proceeds.
