The administration of US President Donald Trump is seeking to reinstate criminal charges against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran citizen whose wrongful deportation became an embarrassing episode for US immigration authorities.
The US Department of Justice filed a motion on Monday with the federal appeals court, requesting the reversal of a judge's ruling that criticized the prosecution of Abrego Garcia as a form of political retaliation.
In a May ruling, US District Judge Waverly Crenshaw found that the government's efforts to bring criminal charges against Abrego Garcia constituted an "abuse of prosecutorial power."
Federal prosecutors, in documents submitted to the US Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit, argued that Judge Crenshaw's ruling was flawed. This is an attempt to revive the criminal charges that the Trump administration brought after being compelled to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
The El Salvadoran national was brought back to the US after the government admitted it had wrongly deported him to El Salvador, where he was held at a facility run by the country's government, notorious for harsh conditions and alleged use of torture.
The Trump administration initially opposed efforts to return Abrego Garcia, 31, to the US, even after admitting he was deported in error despite a 2019 immigration judge's order that he had a "credible fear" of being targeted in El Salvador.
Upon Abrego Garcia's return to the US, the administration filed criminal charges against him for human smuggling. Judge Crenshaw found evidence of a "presumptive retaliatory" motive by the US government, stating that the charges would not have been filed if Abrego Garcia's case had not become a public failure for the administration.
Abrego Garcia previously indicated he was willing to agree to deportation to Costa Rica. However, the Trump administration instead sought to deport him to Liberia, an African nation with which he has no ties and where he would be far from friends and family.
