ShopInterest Successfully AddedWe'll notify you here with news aboutTurn on desktop notifications for breaking stories about interest? OffOnStream onJudge to hear arguments over whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being vindictively prosecutedThe judge earlier canceled the trial in Abrego Garcia's human smuggling case.
A federal judge in Tennessee will hear arguments Thursday over whether the government is being vindictive in pursuing a human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
The hearing comes after the judge, Waverly Crenshaw Jr., canceled the trial in the case in December and wrote in a court order that there was enough evidence to hold a hearing on the question of vindictive prosecution.
Judge says documents suggest top DOJ officials may have pushed to prosecute Kilmar Abrego Garcia after wrongful deportation
The government is currently blocked from deporting Abrego Garcia, who was released from immigration detention in December. In a separate case last week, a federal judge ruled that Immigration and Customs Enforcement cannot re-detain him because his 90-day detention period had expired and the government lacked a viable plan for his deportation.
The Salvadoran native, who had been living in Maryland with his wife and children, was deported in March to El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison -- despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution. The Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which he and his attorneys deny.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia attends a rally in his honor at the Immigration and Customs Enforcement field office in Baltimore on Aug. 25, 2025.Stephanie Scarbrough/APHe was brought back to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee, to which he pleaded not guilty.
Timeline: Wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador
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After being released into the custody of his brother in Maryland pending trial, he was again detained by immigration authorities before being released in December.
Timeline: Wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador
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