For Immediate Release // Please Excuse Cross Posting
Friday, May 22nd, 2026
Contact: Palmira Figueroa, 425-301-27764; pfigueroa@ndlon.org
Los Angeles, CA — A federal judge, Waverly Crenshaw, today threw out the criminal case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, citing evidence that government’s decision to prosecute him was vindictive punishment.
Background: In 2025, after Kilmar, a former Baltimore day laborer, was sent illegally to a dictator’s prison in El Salvador, a judge ordered the Trump Administration to bring him back. They didn’t. They stalled and lied for months before finally bringing Kilmar home – to face charges involving an old, closed case of a traffic stop in Tennessee. In court, they charged Kilmar with human smuggling. In the news, they accused him of much worse. But the judge looked at the evidence and concluded that the charges would never have been brought if Kilmar hadn’t been challenging his illegal kidnapping and imprisonment. He rightly dismissed the case.
The following is a statement from Chris Newman, a lawyer for Kilmar’s family, on behalf of the National Day Laborer Organizing Network (NDLON):
“Our network extends its appreciation to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, his wife Jennifer, and the entire family for their unbreakable courage and inspiring example in fighting for equal rights.
“The Administration systematically violated Kilmar’s constitutional right to due process, inverting the foundational presumption of innocence upon which our legal system rests. The full prosecutorial and punitive apparatus of the federal government was unlawfully mobilized against him, culminating in his extrajudicial imprisonment in CECOT— all predicated on demonstrably false allegations made primarily in the media. The evidence, as it now stands, compels only one conclusion: Kilmar is innocent.
“As the journalist Greg Sargent once wrote of Kilmar: “He has faced perhaps the most crazed vendetta ever waged by a president of the United States against a single individual.”
“The Administration lied and lied and ended up with nothing. Kilmar told the truth and today he stands tall and proud in defense of constitutional values shared by all but his accusers. We don’t know what this President and Administration will try to do to Kilmar next. But we pledge to accompany him in this fight for justice. He has never abandoned hope, and for this we all owe him our respect, gratitude, and solidarity.”
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