Abrego Garcia's lawyers want smuggling charges dismissed on grounds of 'vindictive prosecution'

Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge on Tuesday to dismiss a human smuggling case against him.

Lawyers for Kilmar Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge on Tuesday to dismiss a human smuggling case against him, saying the government was prosecuting the Maryland construction worker to punish him for challenging his removal to El Salvador.

Their motion filed in court said attempts to dismiss indictments on the grounds of “selective or vindictive prosecution” are infrequent and rarely succeed, “but if there has ever been a case for dismissal on those grounds, this is that case.”

The attorneys said senior cabinet members, Justice Department leaders and President Donald Trump mounted unprecedented public attacks on Abrego Garcia and that “vindictiveness is clear from the record.”

Acting U.S. Attorney Robert E. McGuire in Tennessee, where Abrego Garcia is in jail, said in an email prosecutors would have no other comment beyond what they file in response to the motion. No prosecutor response was filed as of late Tuesday.

Abrego Garcia became a prominent face in the debate over Trump’s immigration policies following his wrongful expulsion to El Salvador in March. Trump’s administration violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shields Abrego Garcia from deportation to El Salvador because he likely faces threats of gang violence there.