Federal Judge Dismisses Human-Smuggling Charges Against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, DOJ Vows to Appeal

A federal judge in Tennessee just threw out the human-smuggling indictment against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

The Department of Justice says it is not done fighting.

U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw dismissed the indictment Friday, finding that the prosecution was tainted by vindictiveness after Abrego Garcia challenged his deportation to El Salvador.

The ruling instantly became another flashpoint in the immigration war surrounding President Trump’s enforcement agenda.

Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin flagged the judge’s language from the opinion:

BREAKING: Kilmar Abrego Garcia's federal human smuggling indictment has just been dismissed.

From the federal judge's opinion:

"The Court does not reach its conclusion lightly. The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to… pic.twitter.com/V1lUEubuPG

— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) May 22, 2026

Abrego Garcia is the Salvadoran national whose mistaken deportation became a national fight last year.

He entered the United States illegally, but a 2019 immigration order protected him from being sent back to El Salvador because of a claimed risk of persecution there.

After he was deported anyway, the Supreme Court ordered the administration to facilitate his return. He was later brought back to the United States in June 2025 to face the Tennessee criminal case.

Fox News laid out the ruling and the DOJ response:

The DOJ vowed to appeal after Crenshaw dismissed the two-count Tennessee indictment, calling the ruling wrong and dangerous and accusing an activist judge of putting politics above public safety.

Abrego Garcia had faced charges connected to an alleged human-smuggling conspiracy. Fox reported that prosecutors accused him of conspiring to smuggle roughly 600 illegal immigrants into the United States.

The judge found that the prosecution violated the Fifth Amendment’s Due Process Clause because the case amounted to vindictive and selective prosecution.

The ruling formally dismissed the indictment and vacated Abrego Garcia’s conditions of release, giving his defense a major legal victory while leaving the DOJ with an appeal path.

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Fox also noted the political history around the case, including the administration’s claim that Abrego Garcia had suspected MS-13 ties and the long-running fight over his removal to El Salvador.

That is why the ruling is bigger than a normal criminal procedure fight. It lands directly in the middle of President Trump’s immigration crackdown, where the administration has argued that aggressive enforcement is necessary to protect the country.

That last part matters.

The key point is narrow but powerful: the indictment was dismissed because of how and why the judge believes it was brought.

Crenshaw did not say the government proved nothing about the underlying allegations. He said the prosecution was brought under circumstances that violated due process.

The Associated Press described the legal reasoning behind the dismissal:

Crenshaw said the evidence reflected an abuse of prosecuting power and granted Abrego Garcia’s motion to dismiss for selective or vindictive prosecution.

The judge wrote that the government would not have brought the criminal case without Abrego Garcia’s successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador.

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Crenshaw stopped short of finding actual vindictiveness, a higher standard that generally requires direct evidence such as a prosecutor admitting charges were filed for retaliatory reasons.

Instead, the court found enough evidence of presumptive vindictiveness based on the timing of the indictment, statements by top officials, and the sequence that followed the deportation fight.

The AP also reported that Abrego Garcia’s deportation violated a 2019 immigration court order protecting him from removal to El Salvador because of danger from a gang that had targeted his family.

That background is what made the case such a legal and political headache once courts ordered the government to deal with his return.

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That distinction will be central to the appeal.

The DOJ will likely argue that the judge substituted suspicion for proof and that a defendant cannot beat a human-smuggling indictment just by pointing to political controversy around his case.

But the defense now has a federal ruling saying the indictment itself was the product of improper retaliation.

CNN’s Paula Reid reported that the Trump DOJ plans to appeal:

Trump DOJ says it will appeal after a judge tosses human smuggling case against Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. I joined @TheArenaCNN with details: pic.twitter.com/NPEgLmHudL

— Paula Reid (@PaulaReidCNN) May 22, 2026

CBS News also confirmed the appeal posture and the broader timeline:

The Justice Department said it will appeal and blasted the ruling as wrong and dangerous, while accusing an activist judge of placing politics above public safety.

Crenshaw had already found that Abrego Garcia showed the prosecution may be vindictive, which shifted the burden to the government to rebut that presumption.

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The judge concluded prosecutors did not meet that burden. The indictment followed Abrego Garcia’s March 2025 removal to El Salvador, where he was initially held in a supermax prison before the legal fight forced his case back into U.S. courts.

CBS also reported that Abrego Garcia’s attorneys argued the Tennessee case was retaliation for the civil lawsuit that successfully challenged his removal.

That argument now has a federal judge’s signature behind it, at least unless the Sixth Circuit steps in and revives the prosecution.

The stakes are obvious for both sides. The DOJ wants the criminal case back on track, while Abrego Garcia’s lawyers now have a ruling that portrays the prosecution as a government power play.

So now the case moves into a new phase.

The left will frame this as proof that the administration overreached. The law-and-order side will see one more judge stepping in to block an immigration crackdown that voters demanded.

Either way, the DOJ appeal will matter far beyond one defendant.

If the Sixth Circuit reverses Crenshaw, the human-smuggling case could come roaring back. If the dismissal survives, it will become a new weapon for defendants claiming the Trump DOJ targeted them for political reasons.