Judge Dismisses Criminal Charges Against Kilmar Abrego Garcia as “Vindictive” 

On Friday, a federal judge dismissed the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, ruling that the Trump administration had shown “presumptive vindictiveness” and had charged him in retaliation for his lawsuit challenging his wrongful deportation to El Salvador.

Judge Waverly Crenshaw said in her ruling that the Department of Justice reopened a closed, four-year-old investigation into Abrego Garcia in an “abuse of prosecuting power.” She said that without Abrego Garcia’s “successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the government would not have brought this prosecution.”

Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father who had been living in the U.S. for more than a decade, was deported to El Salvador in March 2025 along with 260 other people during the Trump administration’s early mass deportations. The group was transported to the CECOT prison in an agreement with El Salvador’s right-wing government under Nayib Bukele. According to his lawyers, Abrego Garcia was severely beaten, deprived of sleep, and subjected to psychological torture while held in the notorious prison.

Human rights investigations have detailed systematic abuses used against the deportees, including physical and psychological torture, daily beatings and abuse meant to humiliate the detainees, and cases of sexual violence.

During Abrego Garcia’s detention in CECOT, Bukele met with Trump in a friendly White House visit where each president boasted about their prowess in border security and deportations and promised to collaborate further in their crackdowns on migration. Both agreed that they would refuse to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.

In April, the Justice Department admitted it made an “administrative error” in deporting Abrego Garcia, against a 2019 order that barred his deportation to El Salvador specifically, as he had fled the country as a teenager and would likely still face persecution. But months of legal battles followed, with the Trump administration vehemently fighting his return to the U.S. Both Trump and Vice President JD Vance claimed that Abrego Garcia was an “MS-13 gang member,” baselessly asserting – as they did with dozens if not hundreds of those they deported to CECOT – that his tattoos proved his gang membership.

Finally, in June 2025, Abrego Garcia was returned to the U.S. following a Supreme Court order. But the administration reopened the 2022 criminal investigation against Abrego Garcia, which Crenshaw asserted was in an effort to punish him for challenging his wrongful deportation.

The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) released a statement calling Crenshaw’s decision Friday “naked judicial activism.” The statement asserted that Abrego Garcia’s order of removal still stands and that “this Salvadorian is not going to remain in our country.”

The Trump administration has previously attempted to deport Abrego Garcia to Uganda, Eswatini, and Ghana, and, failing to send him to these countries, are now claiming they will remove him to Liberia. But Abrego Garcia has a court order preventing his deportation, at least for the time being.

Sean Hecker, one of Abrego Garcia’s lawyers, praised the ruling, saying that Abrego Garcia was the “victim of a politicized, vindictive White House.”

In a statement on the decision, Abrego Garcia 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.”