Kilmar Abrego Garcia is asking a federal judge to throw out a criminal case against him, claiming he was “singled out” by President Donald Trump’s administration for “having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice” after he was wrongfully deported to a brutal prison in his home country.
Despite admitting in court that he was wrongfully deported to El Salvador in March, government lawyers and top administration officials spent weeks insisting Abrego Garcia would never be allowed back into the country following a high-profile lawsuit challenging his arrest and removal.
He was abruptly flown back to the United States in June to face a criminal indictment in Tennessee, where a grand jury indicted him on federal smuggling charges.
Prosecutors cannot abuse the law to “punish someone for exercising his constitutional rights,” lawyers for Abrego Garcia wrote on Tuesday. “Yet that is exactly what has happened here.”
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been singled out by the United States government,” they added. “It is obvious why. And it is not because of the seriousness of his alleged conduct.”
Last month, the federal judge overseeing his criminal case ordered his release from jail before trial, finding that prosecutors failed to show “any evidence” that his history or arguments against him warrant his ongoing detention.
That order arrived moments after another federal judge overseeing his wrongful deportation case blocked the Trump administration from immediately arresting and deporting him after he is set to be released from jail.
The court agreed to pause his release from pretrial detention so attorneys can “evaluate options” as they brace for immigration officers to arrest and remove him a second time.
That pause is set to expire this Friday August 22.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys argue he was only charged because “he refused to acquiesce in the government’s violation of his due process rights.”
“Rather than fix its mistake and return [him] to the United States, the government fought back at every level of the federal court system,” attorneys wrote. “And at every level, [he] won. This case results from the government’s concerted effort to punish him for having the audacity to fight back, rather than accept a brutal injustice.”
The Independent has requested comment from Homeland Security.
In court filings, Abrego Garcia’s attorneys detailed the “severe mistreatment” and “torture” he experienced during his month-long detention inside El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.
His attorneys say the 29-year-old father was subject to “severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture” at the facility.
“A group of the most senior officials in the United States sought vengeance: they began a public campaign to punish Mr. Abrego for daring to fight back, culminating in the criminal investigation that led to the charges in this case,” his attorneys wrote.
His lawyers admitted that motions to dismiss on grounds of selective or vindictive prosecution are rarely granted but “if there has ever been a case for dismissal on those grounds, this is that case,” they said.
“The government is attempting to use this case — and this Court — to punish Mr. Abrego for successfully fighting his unlawful removal. That is a constitutional violation of the most basic sort,” his attorneys wrote.
Abrego Garcia — who entered the country illegally as a teenager after fleeing gang violence in El Salvador — was deported on March 15 despite an immigration judge’s order that blocked his removal from the country for humanitarian reasons.
Government lawyers admitted in court documents that he was removed from the country due to a procedural error and several federal judges and a unanimous Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return.
Still, the government spent weeks battling court orders while officials publicly said he would never step foot in the United States, characterizing him as a serial abuser and criminal gang member.
Emails and text messages provided to members of Congress appear to show that administration officials and government lawyers were sympathetic to his wrongful removal and made efforts to get him out of El Salvador before the case made headlines, which caused major headaches for the White House.
A two-count indictment in Tennessee accuses Abrego Garcia of participating in a years-long conspiracy to illegally move undocumented immigrants from Texas to other parts of the country. He faces one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and one count of unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens.
But in their request to keep him in jail before trial, federal prosecutors also claimed he is a member of transnational gang MS-13, and “personally participated in violent crime, including murder.”
Prosecutors also claim he “abused” women and trafficked children, firearms and narcotics, and there is also an ongoing investigation into “solicitation of child pornography.”
Abrego Garcia is not facing any charges on those allegations and a federal judge determined that the government failed to link those allegations to evidence that implicates him.
