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Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Charges Against Kilmar Abrego Garcia Appear ‘Vindictive,’ Judge Rules

A federal judge ruled last week that the U.S. government likely engaged in retaliatory prosecution against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an immigrant who was wrongfully deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration earlier this year. Waverly Crenshaw Jr., a federal judge based in Nashville, Tennessee, said in a 16-page order issued on Friday that there is a “realistic likelihood” that the human trafficking charges against Abrego Garcia were a “vindictive” action by the administration after he filed a successful lawsuit challenging his illegal deportation to El Salvador. For several weeks after Abrego Garcia was initially deported in March, the White House insisted that he was sent to a “super-prison” in El Salvador because of alleged ties to the MS-13 gang, bizarrely citing his tattoos and the types of hats he wore as supposed evidence.

Judge Blocks Deportation Of Kilmar Abrego Garcia To Uganda, For Now

A federal judge appeared skeptical of the Trump administration’s latest attempt to deport Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a court scheduling hearing on August 25, the same day Abrego Garcia was rearrested during a check-in with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). The judge has ordered that the longtime Maryland resident be detained within the continental United States as a lawsuit challenging his detention and removal moves forward this week. The judge suggested previous protective orders would be extended if the administration attempts a deportation in the meantime. The temporary order from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis came only hours after Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem announced that Abrego García was being processed for deportation to Uganda, a nation with a dismal human rights record, and to which the Salvadoran national has no ties.

Abrego Garcia Wins Bail, Can’t Be Detained Again Without Notice

A judge has ordered the release of Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia from federal custody after he was unlawfully deported by the Trump administration to an infamous megaprison in his native El Salvador. After the White House baselessly alleged for months that Abrego Garcia was a dangerous MS-13 gang member — with President Donald Trump going so far as to present a clearly doctored photograph of Abrego Garcia’s hand tattooed with those letters and numbers — a number of legal challenges eventually forced the administration to return him to the United States.

Abrego Garcia’s Wrongful Deportation Case More About Individual Rights Than Trump’s Foreign Policy

Trump administration officials have repeatedly claimed that judges who order the administration to take action to bring deported Venezuelans back from the El Salvador prison where the U.S. sent them are meddling in the conduct of foreign policy. “The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by President Donald J. Trump − not by a court − and no court in the United States has a right to conduct the foreign policy of the United States,” Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on April 14. His comments refer to cases including that of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran man who was deported to El Salvador on March 15, 2025, without any due process.

Failing To Rise To The Constitutional Crisis

As the Trump administration openly defies court orders to return a man wrongfully deported to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador, some American outlets are underplaying the significance of this constitutional crisis. In a unanimous decision the Supreme Court “declined to block a lower court’s order to ‘facilitate’ bringing back Kilmar Ábrego García,” a Salvadoran who had legal protections in the United States and was wrongfully sent to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT (BBC, 4/11/25). The White House is not complying (Democracy Docket, 4/14/25). “The federal courts have no authority to direct the executive branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner,” Trump’s Justice Department insists (CNN, 4/15/25). Fox News (4/16/25) said of Attorney General Pam Bondi: “Bondi Defiant, Says Ábrego García Will Stay in El Salvador ‘End of the Story.’”

Salvadoran President Refuses To Return Wrongfully Deported Man

“Of course I’m not going to do it,” Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele told reporters when asked if he would return the wrongfully deported Maryland worker Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. Bukele was surrounded by Trump administration officials and seated next to President Trump himself in the Oval Office, who smiled at the Central American leader in approval. Bukele claimed that returning the 27-year-old Maryland sheet metal worker would be akin to smuggling “a terrorist into the United States.” Neither the US or El Salvador’s governments have provided any evidence that Garcia participated in gang or criminal activity.
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