The Open Records Request filed on April 17 by Tennessee Star Editor-in-Chief Michael Patrick Leahy, seeking video and written records from the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) stop of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in December 2022, was denied on Monday without explanation by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS).
The Tennessee Public Records Act provides state agencies with seven business days to respond to valid Open Records Requests, and explicitly states that “[f]ailure to respond to the request” constitutes “a denial,” which gives Leahy the right to sue to compel the agency to take action.
Leahy stated on Monday that such legal action against TDOSHS is forthcoming.
“I am shocked by the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security’s failure to comply with the Tennessee Public Records Act,” said Leahy. “I gave them the benefit of the doubt and they have failed to provide any legitimate response within seven business days, as required by law.”
Leahy confirmed, “We will now begin litigation to force TDOSHS to release this all-important information about the details of the December 2022 traffic stop of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, in which Tennessee Highway Patrol admitted they allowed the suspected human trafficker to get off scot-free because they were directed to do so by the ‘Biden-era FBI.'”
Abrego Garcia is the citizen of El Salvador who was deported by the Trump administration last month. Two judges have determined Abrego Garcia is likely to be a member of Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), but he has denied this claim, and in 2019 an immigration judge issued a final deportation order that contained a “withholding of removal” to prohibit his deportation to one of two nations, Guatemala or El Salvador.
Just the News reported that the vehicle Garcia was driving at the time was owned by Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes. Hernandez Reyes is also a citizen of El Salvador who was illegally residing in the United States prior to his 2020 conviction for human smuggling, and the preceding criminal complaint filed by a Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Special Agent, part of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, reveals Hernandez Reyes told law enforcement “he previously lived in Maryland, but now lives in Houston Texas.”
The agency’s failure to respond to the request comes despite the THP previously confirming to The Star that the “Biden-era FBI” instructed its officers to release Abrego Garcia and his eight passengers.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents have since confirmed that THP followed the “Biden-era FBI” orders despite suspecting Abrego Garcia of human trafficking, and despite the citizen of El Salvador only possessing an expired form of a Maryland driver’s license which is only offered to illegal immigrants. Driving without a valid license is a Class B misdemeanor in Tennessee.
Additionally, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI), which investigates human trafficking in the Volunteer State, told The Star it was not informed of the stop.
The failure to respond to the request also comes despite a series of communications with the TDOSHS, both through its Open Records Division, and through Associate Counsel Casey Goggin of the Legal Division.
Hours before The Star became first to report that Abrego Garcia was stopped in Tennessee in 2022, the TDOSHS Open Records Division conflated a general press inquiry that sought to confirm details of the stop with an Open Records Request, and claimed it would not respond to The Star until further steps were taken to comply with the Tennessee Public Records Act (TPRA).
Only after The Star informed the agency of the nature of its initial inquiry did a THP spokesman tell The Star that Abrego Garcia was released at the orders of the “Biden-era FBI.”
Leahy and The Star would go on to file two TPRA-compliant Open Records Requests with the agency on April 17 and April 18, but Goggin would later indicate she was unaware of these requests after The Star sought to ascertain their status last week, by insinuating that The Star attempted to raise its press inquiry to the level of an Open Records Request.
When The Star provided copies of the Open Records Requests for Goggin’s convenience, the attorney indicated that she had not yet started reviewing portions of them, but suggested that Leahy would be required to pay for some of the requested video.
In response to a Friday email requesting an update on the requests, Goggin claimed the request was being processed and that The Star would hear from the agency on Monday, if not earlier.
“The update is that we are in the process of reviewing and redacting the responsive records and will be in touch on or before the seventh business day from receipt of each respective request, with a response as set forth in T.C.A. 10-7-503(a)(2)(B),” the attorney told The Star.
While neither Goggin, the Open Records Division, or another records custodian at TDOSHS provided a response, T.C.A. 10-7-503(a)(3) states, “Failure to respond to the request as described in subdivision (a)(2) shall constitute a denial and the person making the request shall have the right to bring an action” against the agency.
TDOSHS is currently led by Commissioner Jeff Long, the former Williamson County Sheriff who was appointed to lead the agency by Governor Bill Lee in 2019.
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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].
