Kilmar Abrego Garcia Matter

3 proceedings tracked · Active

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was a Maryland construction worker who was deported to a Salvadoran prison in March 2025 in what courts later found was a violation of a prior immigration agreement. His story involves three simultaneous legal threads: a federal criminal case in Tennessee, a federal habeas corpus proceeding in Maryland, and an emergency SCOTUS intervention that intersected and drove each other. This page tracks all three.

Criminal Case

Federal Smuggling Prosecution (Tennessee)

3:25-cr-00115 · M.D. Tenn. · 2025-05-21

A federal grand jury in the Middle District of Tennessee returned an indictment on May 21, 2025 charging Abrego Garcia with alien smuggling and conspiracy, a prosecution that grew out of a 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. The indictment was unsealed when he was returned to the United States on June 6, 2025 to face the charges. The district court dismissed the case on May 22, 2026, and the government is appealing the dismissal.

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Habeas / Immigration

Abrego Garcia v. Noem (Habeas Corpus)

8:25-cv-00951 · D.Md. · 2025

Federal habeas corpus filed after deportation to CECOT without a hearing. Courts found the deportation unlawful under a prior withholding-of-removal agreement. SCOTUS eventually ordered government action to facilitate return. Abrego Garcia returned to the United States on June 6, 2025, and related habeas and immigration litigation continued into 2026.

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SCOTUS Emergency

Abrego Garcia (SCOTUS Emergency Application)

24A949 · U.S. Supreme Court · 2025

Emergency application filed at SCOTUS when lower courts' orders were not producing return. SCOTUS issued order directing government to facilitate return. Compliance battles continued after return.

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