The Justice Department is seeking to reinstate criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, asserting in a filing with a federal appeals court that a lower court judge incorrectly dismissed human smuggling charges.
In May, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw threw out the charges, describing the prosecution of Garcia, a Salvadoran national, as an "abuse of prosecuting power." The ruling was an embarrassment for the Justice Department, which had brought Garcia back to the U.S. to face charges only after he successfully sued the government for wrongful deportation.
Crenshaw found that Garcia would not have faced criminal charges had he not pursued legal action against the government. The judge noted that Homeland Security was aware of the traffic stop that formed the basis for the charges for over two years, but only reopened the case after Garcia was ordered returned to the U.S. Crenshaw cited evidence of "presumptive vindictiveness," including the timing of the indictment and statements made by then-Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, which suggested Garcia was being targeted because he won his deportation case.
In a brief filed Monday night with the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, federal prosecutors countered that Crenshaw erred. They argue Blanche's statements reflected a "normal assessment of the societal interest in punishment" and a motive to "protect the public and confirm its prior assertions about Abrego’s criminal activity," rather than an improper penalty.
Prosecutors also reiterated an argument previously rejected by Crenshaw: that Blanche's statements were irrelevant because the individual who filed the charges was then-Acting U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Rob McGuire, and his motives were the only ones that mattered. Crenshaw's ruling had highlighted sustained oversight of the case by top Justice Department officials and regular communications between McGuire and Associate Deputy Attorney General Aakash Singh, indicating the case was tainted.
Abrego Garcia, 31, is a Salvadoran citizen who has lived in Maryland with his American wife and child for years. He immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager. A 2019 immigration judge order prohibited his deportation to El Salvador due to a "well founded fear" of gang violence there, allowing him to live and work in the U.S. under Immigration and Customs Enforcement supervision, though without residency status.
After being blocked from deporting him to El Salvador, the Trump administration had vowed to deport him to a third country, at one point threatening to send him to Uganda, Eswatini, Ghana, and most recently, Liberia. Garcia has agreed to deportation to Costa Rica, which has agreed to accept him, but the government has not agreed to this arrangement. He is currently fighting deportation to Liberia in a separate federal court case in Maryland.
