Waverly D. Crenshaw, Jr., of the Middle District of Tennessee, Nashville Division, dismissed on May 22  States v. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, on grounds that it was a case of retaliatory prosecution.  DHS remains committed to deport him, but the criminal case against him is dead. Here is what brought this case begun in March 2025 to May 2026

On May 21, 2025, in anticipation of his being returned from El Salvador per court order (which he was on about June 6),  he was indicted in Tennessee for conspiracy to smuggle persons in the U.S. and conspiracy to smuggle within the U.S. over 1,000 undocumented persons. The evidence against him appears to be that from others who were jailed or imprisoned for smuggling. A timeline of the case from March to June 7, when Garcia appeared in court in Tennessee, is here.

DHS had reopened a closed investigation into a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. The court treated that reopening as the starting point of the vindictive taint: the government had previously closed the case after removing him, saying its goals were accomplished. After his successful lawsuit did it revive the matter.

The government was explicit about the connection. Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche publicly linked the renewed investigation to a Maryland judge’s questioning of Abrego’s deportation.

Aakash Singh, a senior official reporting up the DOJ chain, then closely supervised the path to indictment. He pressed for charging information, asked about possible charges, requested drafts, monitored timing, and told the team to keep matters close until they got “clearance.”

The government used the criminal case to bring Abrego back to the United States—the very thing courts had already ordered it to facilitate. The judge concluded that, but for Abrego’s successful lawsuit to be returned, the government would not have brought the prosecution