Justice Department petitions appeals court to reinstate charges against illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Kilmar Abrego Garcia mug shot.

The U.S. Justice Department filed a motion asking an appeals court to reinstate criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the illegal immigrant from El Salvador who was deported by the Trump administration and then brought back to the U.S. after Democrats lobbied for his return and a judge ruled he'd been improperly deported. Another judge then threw out a federal indictment against him.

In May, a federal judge in Tennessee who was appointed by President Obama dismissed a criminal indictment against Abrego Garcia, ruling the government's charges were "vindictive." On Monday, the federal prosecutors asked the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 6th Circuit to reinstate the charges, arguing the charges were never "vindictive," and presenting new evidence in support of the request. 

Abrego Garcia illegally entered the U.S. in the first place and is a known MS-13 gang member. The charges against Abrego Garcia that were tossed in May stemmed from a 2022 traffic stop, all captured by body cameras, in which Abrego Garcia had been pulled over for speeding. Cops said his vehicle was packed with nine people, whom they allege he was smuggling, but he was allowed to leave with only a warning at the time.

In Monday's filing, the Justice Department said previously unrevealed evidence showed Abrego Garcia was driving a car owned by convicted human trafficker Jose Hernandez Reyes at the time of the 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee. During the stop, Abrego Garcia referred to Hernandez Reyes as his "boss," and made a phone call to him, according to the new court filing. 

Prosecutors also allege Abrego Garcia lied to police about where his journey had begun and where he was going, and that several witnesses, including Hernandez Reyes, later came forward to corroborate the human smuggling allegations. 

According to CBS News, lawyers for Abrego Garcia maintain the indictment was vindictive and that the new court filing is "flat wrong." ICE has also been trying to deport Abrego Garcia to Liberia, but another judge blocked the government from doing that. The mainstream media have largely, and falsely, portrayed Abrego Garcia as a "Maryland man," who is a doting father. But even his wife sought court-ordered protection from him in 2020 after alleging domestic abuse, another detail that is widely omitted by most in the mainstream media.