In March of 2025, the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia first gained public traction after he was wrongfully deported and sentenced without a trial to the infamous Salvadorian prison CECOT, otherwise formally known as The Terrorism Confinement Center. CECOT is infamous for housing inmates in “inhumane conditions,” including a “lack of food, hygiene, sanitation, and health care.” Human Rights Watch has also noted the suspicious nature of many inmates’ deaths where the bodies have presented “multiple lesions that show trauma that could have been caused by torture or ill-treatment that might have contributed to their deaths while in custody.”
Despite a judge granting Abrego Garcia with a withholding of removal in 2019 after proving he would face gang violence if deported to El Salvador, the Trump administration classified this case an “administrative error” but continues to argue again returning him to U.S. soil because of “alleged gang ties [to MS-13]” and “the U.S. government’s lack of power over the Central American nation.”
His lawyers remain firm in their stance that he has no gang affiliations and that the U.S. government’s claims are baseless. After he was returned to the U.S., he was arrested on “human smuggling charges,” to which he pleaded not guilty. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers are calling these charges “vindictive prosecution.”
Abrego Garcia’s team defends their statement by pointing out that “high-ranking” Department of Justice officials only began discussing the idea of prosecuting Abrego Garcia after the Trump administration wrongfully deported him. Now, Tennessee officials are considering whether the Trump administration’s charges against Abrego Garcia are vindictive in nature, where the charges are being used as a form of retaliation against him because he successfully challenged his wrongful deportation.
U.S. District Judge Waverly D. Crenshaw Jr. scheduled Abrego Garcia’s next hearing to take place on Jan. 28, which will determine whether or not his case is being pursued vindictively. If prosecutors cannot justify their actions, the human smuggling charges could be dismissed.
The administration was given until Dec. 30 to justify re-detaining Abrego Garcia and was tasked with specifying which legal authority would be in charge of the arrest. The Trump administration has also proposed deporting him to several African nations, including but not limited to Ghana, Uganda and Eswatini, despite Abrego Garcia having no relation to Africa as a Salvadorian citizen residing in America.
Three weeks ago, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the immediate release of Abrego Garcia from ICE custody after her 31-page opinion detailed how “ICE has been holding Kilmar for deportation without… the basic legal document required to deport anyone.” In true nature to any government officials appointed by the Trump administration, U.S. Department of Homeland Security Spokesperson Trisha McLaughlin found issue with Judge Xinis’ ruling and claimed, “This is naked judicial activism by an Obama-appointed judge.”
Abrego Garcia’s case has received an immense amount of media coverage due to the suspicion of being vindictively persecuted by the Trump administration after successfully defending his wrongful deportation. In his hearing taking place on Jan. 28, a judge will rule whether Abrego Garcia’s charges have a basis to stand on, and if they do not, his charges may be dismissed.
