Before being stopped in Tennessee for allegedly speeding and failing to maintain his lane while transporting eight people from Texas to Maryland, Salvadoran citizen Kilmar Abrego Garcia likely passed through Liberty County, Texas, the location of the controversial housing development, Colony Ridge.
Colony Ridge allegedly caters to illegal immigrants, specifically offering homes to those who would ordinarily be unable to qualify for a mortgage due to their status as non-citizens, and was the scene of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) raid earlier this year, which led to the arrests of more than 100, including a previously deported member of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13).
As The Tennessee Star reported last week, the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) and U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) have confirmed that Abrego Garcia was stopped in Tennessee, when he was transporting eight passengers. DHS has since confirmed Abrego Garcia was suspected of human trafficking, and THP told The Star the citizen of El Salvador was released at the instruction of the “Biden-era FBI.”
DHS additionally confirmed Abrego Garcia told THP he left Houston, Texas three days prior to the trip, and that his companions first passed through St. Louis before turning south, where they were eventually stopped by THP on I-40 in Putnam County, Tennessee.
If Abrego Garcia took the most direct route from Houston to St. Louis, he would have likely used US-69 to leave the city heading north. This route passes through Cleveland, Texas, which is part of Liberty County, and is located just miles away from Colony Ridge. The controversial housing development is also part of the Cleveland Independent School District (ISD), which recently proposed a $150 million bond to build new schools to serve the rapidly growing community that largely consists of immigrants.
Colony Ridge has existed in some form for more than two decades, but became a national controversy after it was profiled by The Daily Wire in 2023, when the outlet reported the housing development was both the “fast growing development” in the United States and “a magnet for illegal immigrants.” The outlet recently reported those behind the development previously donated $1.5 million to Governor Gregg Abbott.
The U.S. Department of Justice sued the developers behind Colony Ridge in 2023, alleging they targeted “tens of thousands of Hispanic borrowers with false statements and predatory loans,” including by declining to give borrowers copies of certain financial documents in Spanish. The DOJ also claimed much of the land sold by the developers is located in a flood zone and lacks infrastructure for water, sewage, or electricity.
More recently, over 100 illegal immigrants were arrested in Colony Ridge in February as the result of a joint operation involving the Texas Department of Public Safety (TDPS), Texas National Guard, and federal officials with the Trump administration, according to the Abbott administration.
ICE confirmed one of the men arrested was Luis Miguel Perez-Miranda, an MS-13 member and citizen of El Salvador who was illegally residing in the United States after being previously deported six times. Perez Miranda was arrested “following a manhunt by authorities” that stretched to Dayton, Texas, in another part of Liberty County.
Two judges previously determined Abrego Garcia is likely a member of MS-13, though he and his family have denied this claim.
Notably, DHS did not state that Abrego Garcia claimed to stop in Liberty County when questioned by law enforcement, or even that he and his passengers stopped when traveling through St. Louis.
The agency did reveal that Abrego Garcia told THP that the portion of the journey to Maryland up until that point required three days, but it should only require about 12 hours to drive from Houston to St. Louis, with the additional time required to reach Putnam County extending the trip to just under 18 hours. Abrego Garcia’s claim that this portion of the journey required three days could indicate that stops were made prior to the encounter with the highway patrol.
The revelation that Abrego Garcia likely traveled through Liberty County, Texas, comes after it was revealed the Salvadoran was driving a vehicle owned by Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes.
After attempting to smuggle people from Houston to other parts of the country, Hernandez Reyes was convicted of human smuggling in 2020 and was sentenced to 18 months in prison, then deported to his native El Salvador and barred from reentering for three years. Hernandez Reyes previously made at least five trips from Houston to destinations including Virginia and South Carolina.
The Star has filed two Open Records Requests with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS), which oversees the highway patrol, seeking both written records related to the 2022 stop, as well as audio and video recordings from dashboard and body-worn cameras, which could shine light on exactly what Abrego Garcia told officers about his travels. The state agency is slow walking this request.
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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].
Background Photo “Cleveland, Texas” by Billy Hathorn. CC BY-SA 3.0.
