Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, said the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the citizen of El Salvador who was deported by the Trump administration earlier this year, should serve as a cautionary tale for the Democratic Party moving forward, given the new developments surrounding Abrego Garcia.
Last month, The Star was the first to report that Abrego Garcia was suspected of being engaged in human trafficking by Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) officers who detained him during a 2022 traffic stop on I-40 in Putnam County; however, was let go at the time after the Biden-era Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) requested that the state officers release him and the nine other passengers in the vehicle.
On Thursday, The Star received body camera footage as the result of an Open Records Request filed with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS), which revealed THP officers discussed their suspicion that Abrego Garcia was hauling the nine other passengers “for money” with the 2001 Chevrolet Suburban with an added fourth row of seats he was driving at the time of the traffic stop.
It was also previously reported that the vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving at the time of the traffic stop was owned by Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, an illegal immigrant who himself was convicted in 2020 after he pleaded guilty to smuggling fellow illegal immigrants into the United States following a traffic stop in Mississippi.
On Tuesday, ABC News quietly reported that Hernandez Reyes recently spoke to a DOJ lawyer regarding the 2022 traffic stop of Abrego Garcia after being offered immunity where he reportedly admitted to hiring Abrego Garcia multiple times to transport illegal aliens across the U.S., including at the time of the 2022 incident.
Noting how Abrego Garcia was initially portrayed as a Maryland dad in the media and by the Democratic Party, Pappert ridiculed the misleading narrative, pointing to the information learned about Abrego Garcia from the 2022 traffic stop coupled with his alleged history of violence against his wife and being documented as a MS-13 gang member.
“It really makes you remark about how far we’ve come. This started out as the ‘Maryland dad who would coach his kids. He was the father of the year and the husband that every woman dreams of.’ Now, we found out he allegedly beat his wife. He’s traveling all across the country, not a lot of time at home with the kids. He’s being paid allegedly by a human smuggler who is in prison singing like a canary because he’s got some form of limited immunity. Oh, and by the way, two judges have said he’s MS-13 and he has these nasty tattoos on his fingers and was suspected of human trafficking in Tennessee in 2022,” Pappert said on Wednesday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
Considering how some members of the Democratic Party continue to advocate for Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., Pappert said Abrego Garcia’s case should serve as a cautionary tale for Democrats.
“This guy could have flown under the radar had the Democrats not made him their cause celeb, their man of the hour. Now, we’ve dug all this up. This guy may be facing new charges. He could have just been sitting in CECOT for a few years because of his alleged MS-13 ties,” Pappert explained.
“This is the danger for the Democrats when they pick these horrible idols,” he added.
In addition, Pappert pointed out how Democrats, through their advocacy for Abrego Garcia, may have unintentionally uncovered a criminal human smuggling and trafficking route as allegedly taken by Abrego Garcia and Hernandez Reyes.
“We could be uncovering not just the crimes of Abrego Garcia, alleged crimes, potential crimes, but uncovering a criminal smuggling and trafficking route that goes through the entire country from Houston and may even be led and organized by MS-13 gang members,” Pappert said.
Moving forward, Pappert said Abrego Garcia could still face federal and Tennessee state charges, which could potentially result in his return to the U.S. to stand trial.
“I have a prediction that we have not seen the last of Abrego Garcia. The administration has been very clear in that he’s not coming back to the United States, but it’s looking as though there may be criminal charges that he would have to answer for, under which conditions I assume he would be brought back, put into an ICE facility where he will await trial and, if found guilty, would then serve a sentence or potentially under this new agreement that Trump has with El Salvador, be sent back to CECOT to serve a sentence there,” Pappert said.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
