A federal judge has canceled the trial of Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia and ordered a hearing to examine if prosecutors are vindictively pursuing human smuggling charges against him. Abrego Garcia, mistakenly deported earlier this year, returned to the US amid controversy but now faces these allegations. The hearing is set for January 28.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man with an American wife and child, has been at the center of immigration debates following his erroneous deportation by the Trump administration in March to a prison in El Salvador. Under public pressure and a court order, he was returned to the United States in June, only to be hit with an arrest warrant for human smuggling in Tennessee.
Abrego Garcia denies the charges and claims selective targeting by prosecutors. On Tuesday, US District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. canceled his upcoming trial and scheduled a hearing for January 28 to assess if the prosecution is acting vindictively. In his order, Crenshaw noted sufficient evidence for the hearing, where prosecutors must justify their actions; failure to do so could lead to dismissal of the charges.
The allegations stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, where Abrego Garcia was driving with nine passengers, raising officers' suspicions of smuggling. He received only a warning at the time. A Department of Homeland Security agent testified that the investigation began after the US Supreme Court ruled in April that the administration must facilitate Abrego Garcia's return from El Salvador.
Years prior, a judge granted Abrego Garcia protection from deportation due to threats from a gang targeting his family in El Salvador. This allowed him to live and work in the US under ICE supervision. The Trump administration has accused him of MS-13 gang ties, which he strongly denies, and he has no criminal record.
Neither Abrego Garcia's defense attorney nor the US attorney's office in Nashville responded to comment requests.
