Two days after The Tennessee Star exclusively reported that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was pulled over by the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) in late 2022, when an officer suspected he was engaged in human trafficking, Bill Melugin of Fox News published a Department of Homeland Security (DHS) document confirming many details.
The DHS document confirms THP stopped Abrego Garcia on December 1, 2022 for speeding and failing to maintain his lane. It also confirms THP officers suspected the alleged Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13) gang member was participating in “Labor/Human Trafficking” while transporting eight individuals from Texas to Maryland, meaning a total of nine individuals were traveling in the vehicle.
Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador last month, allegedly told THP officers he spent the last three days driving from Houston, Texas to Temple Hills, Maryland, “to bring in people to perform construction work.”
According to the report, THP noticed “no luggage in the vehicle, leading the encountering officer to suspect this was a human trafficking incident.”
The DHS report also revealed that all eight of Abrego Garcia’s passengers provided the same home address as the driver.
NEW: DHS has provided @FoxNews a bodycam image & HSI report from when Kilmar Abrego Garcia was pulled over by Tennessee Highway Patrol & was suspected of human trafficking in 2022. Per report, he had 8 people w/ no luggage in the car w/ him, & claimed to be driving them from TX… pic.twitter.com/d2uU6YuVKx
— Bill Melugin (@BillMelugin_) April 18, 2025
It also revealed none of the passengers had identification documents, and that their handwriting was deemed to be illegible by the officer who requested the passengers to write down their names on paper.
The DHS report omits the FBI involvement in the stop, which was confirmed by THP to The Star on Thursday night.
According to THP, the FBI had jurisdiction over the stop for unknown reasons, and ultimately instructed officers at the scene to release Abrego Garcia and his eight passengers.
“Per standard protocol, the THP contacted federal law enforcement authorities with the Biden-era FBI—the agency of jurisdiction—who made the decision not to detain him,” a THP spokesman told The Star.
Instead of noting the FBI’s involvement in the stop, the DHS document states, “Encountering officer decided not to cite the subject for driving infractions but gave him a warning citation for driving with an expired driver’s license.”
The document also revealed the driver’s license presented by Abrego Garcia was expired, and was issued from Maryland with the marking “Limited Term Temporary,” which Maryland issues to individuals who are legally within the United States on a temporary basis.
Melugin also obtained the same still image of Abrego Garcia, captured by a THP body-worn camera, that was obtained earlier on Friday by The Star.
The Star has additionally filed open records requests seeking additional THP records related to the stop, as well as the full body-worn camera and dashboard camera video and audio captured by THP during the traffic stop. The Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS) had not yet acknowledged either request by press time.
Similarly, the FBI has not responded to multiple inquiries from The Star that seek to clarify its role in the traffic stop. The federal agency has yet to confirm or deny its role in the decision to release Abrego Garcia and his passengers.
The recent deportation of Abrego Garcia occurred after he reportedly told law enforcement he illegally immigrated to the United States in March of 2012. By 2019, two judges had determined Abrego Garcia is likely to be a member of MS-13. However, he has denied this, leading an immigration judge in 2019 to issue the “withholding of removal” order that prevented his deportation to El Salvador but not another country.
Abrego Garcia was deported last month, and the U.S. District Court and the U.S. Supreme Court have ruled the Trump administration must take steps to facilitate his return.
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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].
Succinctly put, Mr. Allen. And I totally agree. Apparently the liberal progressives will continue to ‘dig to China’ before they are forced to acknowledge that people in a country other than their own without invitation or legal right are CRIMINALS.
Total failure of the THP and the FBI. No wonder the USA has been going downhill for the last many years. Enforce the friggin laws!
This was last weeks “hill to die on” for the donks. Sadly they don’t get it so I’ll lay it out for them.
No matter that whoever was pulling Biden’s puppet strings (and running the auto-pen) encouraged these millions of third worlders into America, they are here ILLEGALLY. Poster boy Abrego Garcia, has been adjudicated as a “likely” MS13 gang member, he was charged twice with beating his wife/girl friend, he was driving erratically and speeding, and was pulled over by THP. He was driving with a expired temporary DL, and he was transporting seven people who all claimed the same address. And the Biden administration instructed THP to not detain him. Law abiding Americans do not look favorably upon situations like this.
The bottom line is HE WAS IN AMERICA ILLEGALLY. Democrats seem to decide on a daily basis which laws to obey, and which ones to ignore. As is usually the case, this issue is not about public safety for the donks, it’s about hatred. Thank God the pool of useful idiots seems to be drying up.