The Tennessee Star learned on Wednesday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged member of the Central American gang Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) who was deported to El Salvador under President Donald Trump amid legal action claiming the removal was by mistake, was suspected of being engaged in human trafficking by a Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) officer who detained him in December 2022, leading the THP to contact the FBI for guidance. Within two hours, the FBI ultimately requested the THP release Garcia and the passengers in his vehicle. THP complied with the request.
The Star learned from sources familiar with the incident that Abrego Garcia was stopped for an unknown reason on December 6, 2022, and that the THP officer responsible for the stop immediately discovered Abrego Garcia was transporting seven passengers, with eight individuals inside the vehicle.
During a nearly two-hour traffic stop, the THP officer determined that Abrego Garcia (pictured above) was operating the vehicle without a valid driver’s license and began searching for information about him.
Something about the traffic stop caused concern in the mind of the THP officer that other law enforcement agencies should be alerted. One source told The Star that THP ultimately discovered Abrego Garcia was on a terrorist watch list, but could not locate Abrego Garcia on a deportation list. Another source told The Star that THP did not discover Abrego Garcia on a terrorist watch list but that another one of the seven passengers in the vehicle may have been on a terrorist watch list.
THP subsequently called the FBI, which was then led by former Director Christopher Wray under the Biden administration. The FBI instructed the THP officers at the scene to capture photographs of all eight people in the vehicle and document its contents.
Once the photographs were captured, this source told The Star that the FBI requested THP release all eight individuals and that the THP officers complied with this request.
The Star learned that the circumstances of the stop made the THP officer responsible for the stop concerned that Abrego Garcia was engaged in human trafficking, but that Abrego Garcia and his passengers were nonetheless released at the request of the FBI.
Information about this incident, including the identity of the THP officer, the officer’s badge number, and the Computerized Dispatch Report code assigned to the incident, are all known to The Star, which is currently withholding this information.
Sources familiar with the Computerized Dispatch Report of the incident told The Star that the officer who filed the report confirmed that the seven individuals in the van were being transported from Texas to Maryland by Garcia.
Notably, it is a misdemeanor offense in the state of Tennessee to operate a motor vehicle without a valid driver’s license. Anyone convicted of this Class B misdemeanor faces up to six months in jail.
The officer who detained Garcia temporarily is well-respected within the Tennessee Highway Patrol, has served on a special interdiction team, and is based in a district located between Nashville and Knoxville, which includes Putnam County.
In response to Wednesday press inquiries from The Star, THP and the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security both confirmed receiving the communication, and that communications staff would send responses which did not arrive prior to press time.
A comment request by The Star to the FBI, seeking to confirm its instructions to THP, was not immediately answered.
The Star also contacted the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), as the chief authority over human trafficking investigations in the state, to determine whether Abrego Garcia was released due to a TBI investigation, but did not receive an immediate response.
An inquiry to the Department of Homeland Security, which oversees federal human trafficking investigations, likewise went unanswered prior to press time.
Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen who illegally immigrated to the United States in 2012. Despite two judges determining he is likely to be a member of MS-13, Abrego Garcia and his family have denied this claim. In 2019, he was granted a “withholding of removal” order, which determined Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador over concerns related to his safety in his homeland, but that he could be removed to a third country.
He was deported to El Salvador under the Trump administration in March. Both U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis and the U.S. Supreme Court have ruled that the government must take steps to allow Abrego Garcia to return to the country. However, the high court recently halted an order by Xinis on the grounds that she sought to compel the Trump administration to engage in diplomacy with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador.
Bukele, during a recent Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump, stated that he had neither the authority nor the motivation to release Abrego Garcia, who is deemed a terrorist after the Trump administration added MS-13 to the federal government’s list of Foreign Terrorist Organizations.
“I don’t have the power to return him to the United States. How could I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course, I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous,” said Bukele in response to a question about Abrego Garcia.
Asked whether he would consider releasing Abrego Garcia within the borders of El Salvador, the head of state replied, “We’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country.”
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Tom Pappert is the lead reporter for The Tennessee Star, and also reports for The Pennsylvania Daily Star and The Arizona Sun Times. Follow Tom on X/Twitter. Email tips to [email protected].
Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include additional context and detail.
What sort of construction company would require driving 8 people in a car from Texas to Maryland? Driver had no valid license or registration, passengers had no luggage. One of the passengers was on a terrorist watchlist. And the FBI under Biden said to let them go. Looks like human trafficking. It’s sketchy. Yet I’m getting emails to sign petitions to defend this sort of thing.
YOU ARE THE SAME MORONS THAT THINK SCOTUS VOTED 9-0 IN FAVOR OF TRUMP! YOU IDIOTS WILL BELIEVE ANYTHING THAT GIVES TRUMP A PASS!! YOU CLAIM DEMOCRATS ARE OUT OF TOUCH WITH REALITY, WHEN YOU COULDN’T GIVE A BASIC FACT ABOUT REALITY! STOP YOUR PROJECTING AND REWRITING HISTORY!!
Beatrice: here is some reality, the democratic party is foundering;
Among the American public overall, the Democratic Party’s favorability rating stands at just 29% – a record low in CNN’s polling dating back to 1992 and a drop of 20 points since January 2021
https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/16/politics/cnn-poll-democrats/index.html
More hard reality, President Trump won the election by the popular vote, and now he is fulfilling his promises to the American people, even overcoming the best efforts of the democratic clown show to disrupt his plans. The American public has spoken. Its too bad whats left of the democratic party cannot get with the program instead of behaving like a bunch of spoiled children.
Yes,
Ann Price,
Biden was allowing aid and abetting an invasion of our country in flagrant violation of “the United States SHALL progress t the States against invasion… (Article IV, Section 4 U.S. Constitution)
https://abcstlouis.com/news/nation-world/biden-admin-flew-hundreds-of-thousands-of-migrants-into-us-using-cbp-one-app-illegal-immigration-border-crisis-southern-border
His evil actions of invasion against his own country, States and People is “treason” according to Article III, Section 3.
Maybe. I think it’s more likely he WAS trafficking people but that the Biden admin didn’t want this on any record anywhere in case it came back to bit them in the rear.
Where were these deimocrat bleeding hearts when Elian Gonzales was repatriated.
Come on..really Biden was flying g immigrants in..seriously..where’d you get this info..where’s the proof. I’m sick to death of this president acting like a 2yo kid and throwing his ass..calling ppl names thumbing his nose at federal judges..calling them.names and general disrespect for anyone who don’t go in lock step with him. He a narcissist. He has all the symptoms and features of 1
Ann: I beg to differ. for the last two years I have been watching a YouTube show called MonkywerxUS who tracks global flights using aviation programs Skyglass, and Flightaware. Weekly these aviation tracking programs showed passenger aircraft from GlobalX traveling back and forth between Venezuela and Central America, and for the most part landing at Biggs Army Airfield. Biggs was a clearing house for illegal aliens, after-which these aviation programs showed commercial aircraft leaving Biggs and heading out to major U.S. airports. It is a documented fact that the biden admin was flying in thousands of illegal aliens on a weekly basis.
This is a good example of how liberals are controlled by the MSM. The controlled media is not allowed to report on occurrences that go against the official narrative. All of these people who are in OUR COUNTRY ILLEGALLY, need to be rounded up and sent back to the boarder, and they can walk back to wherever they came from.
Liberal/progressive/marxists and so blind, your comments show how little you really know about reality.
STINKS!! Thanx for report.
Thanks for giving cover to the “mistake” liars. Very helpful.
FBI = Human Traffickers
Bob Jones,
That is very likely true.
“It is also a habit of tyrants to prefer the company of aliens to that of citizens at table and in society; citizens, they feel, are enemies, but aliens will offer no opposition.”
—Aristotle, 384-322 B.C.
But, according the the democrats and their propaganda arm known as the MSM, he is a fine outstanding member of the community, a father as well as a faithful companion to the woman he loves, NOT.
The fact that the democrats, or what is left of them, are fighting to bring him back to America shows how badly they are out of touch with reality. Please keep it up, the midterms will be here before we know it.
So, a THP Officer put Tennesseans at risk by releasing a man with no valid driver’s license onto our roadways, because the FBI told him to?
It sounds like this guy may have been working for the Biden Administration transporting illegals all over the country before Biden openly started flying them everywhere.
Excellent point Bob. The perversion of the left knows no bounds.