The U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) and the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) have confirmed that Kilmar Abrego Garcia told officers he was transporting eight passengers from Houston, Texas, to Temple Hills, Maryland, with an apparent stop in St. Louis, Missouri, after he was stopped in 2022 for speeding and failing to maintain a lane while driving in Tennessee.
Often called a “Maryland man,” Abrego Garcia is the citizen of El Salvador who was deported to his home country last month by the Trump administration, and his attorneys argue the deportation should be reversed due to a 2019 “withholding of removal” order, signed by an immigration judge, which prevented his removal to El Salvador, but not a third country. Two judges have determined Abrego Garcia is likely to be a member of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), though he has denied this claim.
While stopped by THP on I-40 in Tennessee, Abrego Garcia provided an invalid driver’s license, and told officers he was transporting the eight passengers “crammed” into his vehicle from Texas to Maryland to work in construction, and that the vehicle he was driving was registered to the owner of the construction company.
The DHS confirmed on Saturday that THP officers suspected Abrego Garcia was engaged in human trafficking, as The Tennessee Star exclusively reported last Wednesday, but that he was nonetheless released, with THP telling The Star last week that officers followed instructions given by the “Biden-era FBI,” whom the agency said had jurisdiction over the investigation.
Abrego Garcia’s wife commented on the THP officers’ suspicion to USA Today, stating that her husband “worked in construction and sometimes transported groups of workers between job sites,” calling it “entirely plausible he would have been pulled over while driving with others in the vehicle.”
Though she told the outlet Abrego Garcia “was not charged with any crime or cited for any wrongdoing,” DHS has since confirmed THP cited Abrego Garcia with a warning for failing to provide a valid driver’s license during the stop. It is a Class B misdemeanor offense to operate a motor vehicle without a license in the State of Tennessee.
Houston, where Abrego Garcia told THP he began transporting the eight passengers, is described in government documents as “one of the most intense trafficking jurisdictions in the country,” with officials citing the city’s proximity to the U.S.-Mexico border, the presence of an international airport and sea port, as well as both I-10 and US-59 intersecting the city, which allows for unfettered access to America’s interstate highways.
There are more than 313,000 victims of human trafficking across Texas each year, including about 234,000 victims who are trafficked to perform labor, according to the University of Texas at Austin. Of these victims, researchers at the university have said 79,000 are minors or victims of sex trafficking.
While Abrego Garcia has never been charged or convicted of human trafficking, in 2020, another foreign national living in Maryland was charged with aiding human traffickers and operating a stash house used to temporarily detain trafficking victims in Houston.
According to KHOU-11, Jorge Antonio Coello Chavez was arrested on December 3, 2020, after police were called to an apartment and began questioning him about other people inside the residence.
The outlet reported that Chavez eventually “left the apartment and the victims were able to escape with the help of apartment management,” allowing them to be identified as “five men from Ecuador and a woman from Guatemala.”
Chavez was arrested when he re-entered the apartment, and it was later reported that victims claimed more criminals were involved in the trafficking, and that one victim paid to be transported to New York. Chavez was reportedly granted a low, $5,000 bond by a judge in Harris County, Texas.
Notably, while DHS said that Abrego Garcia claimed he departed Houston for St. Louis “three days ago,” such a trip is approximately 750 miles long, which would likely take most drivers around 12 hours to complete. While stops for rest or logistics could explain this duration increasing to three days, especially with nine people traveling in the vehicle, the extended timeline raises questions about the nature of the journey.
The Star has filed an Open Records Request with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security to obtain the dashboard and body-worn camera footage captured by THP officers during the incident, and has asked the FBI to confirm its role in the traffic stop, as well as what policy led to the release of Abrego Garcia and his passengers.
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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].
