WASHINGTON — The U.S. Department of Justice will face sharp questioning on the witness stand in Federal District Court in Nashville, Tennessee, Jan. 28. Federal Judge Waverly Crenshaw Jr. says he intends to dig into the facts of their transparently vindictive prosecution of apprentice sheet metal worker and SMART union member Kilmar Ábrego García.
After Ábrego García had been denied due process and illegally deported to El Salvador and suffered torture in the notorious CECOT prison there, his supporters mounted a public campaign that won his return. In response, top federal prosecutors in Washington began investigating a three-year-old traffic stop that ended without so much as a traffic citation in Tennessee to see if they could cook up a case.
They got prosecutors there to file trumped-up charges of human trafficking against Ábrego García, and threw him into detention. He has steadfastly maintained his innocence and refused to cop a plea.
Local prosecutors in Nashville have insisted repeatedly that filing the case against Ábrego García was their decision, and theirs alone.
But on Dec. 30, Crenshaw unsealed some 3,000 government documents that blow these claims out of the water. Document after document shows top officials in the Justice Department in Washington pressing the Tennessee prosecutors to go after the young worker. An April 30 email from Aakash Singh, who works in the office of Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche, tells the Tennessee lawyers that charging Ábrego García was “a top priority” for them.
At the same time, they told Crenshaw the prosecution was their own idea. Even before he saw all this new evidence, the judge said there was “a realistic likelihood” the administration brought the case vindictively.
Ábrego García’s attorneys moved to dismiss the case on Aug. 19, saying it was filed to punish the young worker for challenging his deportation.
Since Ábrego García’s arrest in March, the government’s use of Immigration and Customs Enforcement cops to go after immigrant workers has accelerated across the country, from Los Angeles to Minneapolis. As of Jan. 15, ICE had 73,000 people in detention, an 84% jump from the same time in 2025 and the highest level ever recorded by the agency.
Ábrego García fight is an example
Ábrego García remains free because of the way he has conducted himself and the far-reaching support he has won. He is fighting for asylum and against government moves to deport him again.
In a separate immigration case the government filed before Federal Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland, she says she will rule by Feb. 12 whether the government can take him back into custody.
Like Crenshaw, Xinis has repeatedly reprimanded the government for its efforts to ignore her orders and avoid a straightforward review of the facts. So far she has barred the government from arresting Ábrego García again.
“The fight will continue. I will always stand against the injustice this government has committed,” Ábrego García told his supporters Dec. 11. “I am free. Remember me this way”
They chanted back, “Ábrego García, the community is with you,” in Spanish.
CASA, the immigrant rights group that is leading his defense, has organized disciplined, well-marshaled protests at every hearing, in both Maryland and Tennessee, and outside the Moshannon Detention Center where he was incarcerated in Pennsylvania. A team of CASA members takes responsibility for him and his family’s safety.
Ábrego García is resolved to extend solidarity to other families facing persecution by la migra, urging them to “keep fighting.” His fight has opened political space for others detained and separated from their families. And more unions are speaking out, emulating his SMART union, which campaigned for labor solidarity for his fight from day one, especially his constitutional right to due process.
Ábrego García, his union and his supporters are an example of how to fight and begin to build a movement that workers and unions want to be part of. His case is a flashpoint in a broader struggle for amnesty for all workers without papers in the U.S., crucial to fight for the unity of the working class. Join his fight and help win solidarity!
CASA has a new website on the fight: “Demand Justice for Kilmar Armando Ábrego García,” in English, Spanish and French. Go to www.wearecasa.org.