(The Center Square) – A Maryland judge denied a motion from U.S. officials to delay a case against Kilmar Abrego Garcia because of the government shutdown.
The case involves an effort by the government to deport Abrego Garcia to another country.
Maryland U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered an evidentiary hearing for Friday. She asked the government to bring witnesses to testify about what steps have been made to deport Abrego Garcia “‘to Eswatini or any other country’ in the reasonably foreseeable future.”
Eswatini is the South African country formerly known as Swaziland.
Abrego Garcia was deported to his native El Salvador in March. He was returned to the U.S. in June to face human smuggling charges in Tennessee.
A Tennessee U.S. District Court judge said in a memorandum opinion issued Friday that Abrego Garcia “has carried his burden of demonstrating some evidence” that his Tennessee indictment was vindictive. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys accused the government of “vindictive and selective prosecution” in a motion to dismiss.
“The timing of Abrego’s indictment suggests a realistic likelihood that senior DOJ and DHS officials may have induced Acting U.S. Attorney McGuire (albeit unknowingly) to criminally charge Abrego in retaliation for his Maryland lawsuit. The indictment stems from a HSI investigation into the November 30, 2022 traffic stop that resulted in no traffic tickets, let alone charges against Abrego. HSI put that matter to bed on March 12, 2025,” Judge Waverly Crenshaw wrote in his memorandum.
Crenshaw’s use of acronyms referenced the Department of Justice, Department of Homeland Security and Homeland Security Investigations.
The government “bears the burden of rebutting the presumption with ‘objective, on-the-record explanations’ such as ‘governmental discovery of previously unknown evidence’ or ‘previous legal impossibility,"” Crenshaw wrote.
“After the parties conduct discovery, “[i]t may well be that no fire will be discovered under all the smoke[.]” Adams, 870 F.2d at 1146. Indeed, the Government could produce evidence showing legitimate reasons for its prosecution of Abrego that are unrelated to his case in the District of Maryland,” the judge said in the order.