By Luc Cohen
NEW YORK, May 22 (Reuters) - A U.S. judge dismissed an indictment against Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego on Friday, finding that the Trump administration would not have prosecuted him had he not challenged his deportation.
Abrego, who entered the United States illegally, became a symbol of the Trump administration's drive for mass deportations when he was sent to a megaprison in El Salvador in March despite a prior court order barring him from being returned there because of a risk of persecution.
The Trump administration brought Abrego back to the U.S. in June after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the government to facilitate his return. His return came only after prosecutors secured a criminal indictment charging Abrego with human smuggling.
Abrego pleaded not guilty and argued he was being prosecuted in retaliation for suing the government to be returned.
U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw in Nashville, Tennessee, wrote that the Justice Department only reopened its human smuggling probe stemming from a 2022 traffic stop after Abrego filed his lawsuit.
"The court does not reach its conclusion lightly," Crenshaw wrote. "The objective evidence here shows that, absent Abrego's successful lawsuit challenging his removal to El Salvador, the Government would not have brought this prosecution."
(Reporting by Luc Cohen in New York; Editing by Noeleen Walder and Daniel Wallis)
