GREENBELT, MARYLAND - DECEMBER 22: Kilmar Abrego Garcia and his wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura listen during a post-hearing briefing outside U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland on December 22, 2025 in Greenbelt, Maryland. Abrego Garcia, a longtime Maryland resident who was deported to the high-security CECOT prison in El Salvador, then sent back to the U.S. and released after the court found his detention unlawful, attended a hearing on whether Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) may re-detain him. (Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)
NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) — A human smuggling case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia in Tennessee has been dismissed without a trial. Abrego Garcia’s mistaken deportation to El Salvador last year became an embarrassment for President Donald Trump’s administration when it was ordered to return him to the U.S. Abrego Garcia claimed the timing of the criminal charges and inflammatory statements about him by top Trump officials demonstrated the prosecution was vindictive. A federal judge in Tennessee on Friday agreed to dismiss the charges. Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen with an American wife and child who has lived in Maryland for years, although he immigrated to the U.S. illegally as a teenager.
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