DOJ appeals dismissal of charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Lily Carey, Baltimore Sun on Jun 23, 2026

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The U.S. Department of Justice is appealing the dismissal of criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant from Maryland who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last year.

In a notice filed Monday, U.S. Attorney Braden Boucek informed the court that the Justice Department would formally appeal a federal judge’s ruling dismissing the charges, bringing Abrego Garcia’s case to a federal appeals court.

Federal prosecutors allege that Abrego Garcia was part of a conspiracy to transport undocumented immigrants “in an unsafe manner” from the U.S.-Mexico border in Texas to other parts of the country, and have renewed earlier accusations that he is a member of the gang MS-13. The allegations stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, when officers discovered Abrego Garcia driving with nine passengers in his car, all without luggage.

An investigation into the traffic stop had been closed in 2022, but was reopened when federal prosecutors filed the case against Abrego Garcia in 2025. Abrego Garcia pleaded not guilty, and in May, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw dismissed the case, calling it an “abuse of prosecuting power” by federal authorities.

In March 2025, Abrego Garcia, who moved to Maryland as a teenager, was accused of being a member of MS-13 and was deported to a Salvadoran prison, despite an immigration judge’s 2019 order that he could not be sent back because gangs had targeted his family. He remained in prison for three months without trial before he was safely returned to the United States and released from U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement custody.

Upon his return, the Justice Department pursued human smuggling charges in Tennessee tied to the 2022 traffic stop, and has repeatedly attempted to take Abrego Garcia into custody in Maryland.

In an opinion issued last month in the Tennessee case, Crenshaw, an appointee of former President Barack Obama, wrote that the federal government’s prosecution of Abrego Garcia was vindictive and violated his due process rights. Crenshaw’s opinion decried the government’s arguments as having a “retaliatory taint” and lacking new evidence.

Abrego Garcia is also challenging federal authorities’ attempts to detain him in the U.S. District Court of Maryland. Currently, Abrego Garcia and his legal representatives are awaiting a response from federal authorities, expected to come Wednesday, in one of the two Maryland cases.

He remains at his home in Prince George’s County, where he lives with his wife and child, both of whom are U.S. citizens.

“I stand before you as a free man, and I want you to remember me this way, with my head held up high,” Abrego Garcia told a crowd of supporters, through an interpreter, at a courthouse in December when it was officially ruled that he could not be legally detained by ICE.

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