Tom Pappert, lead reporter at The Tennessee Star, raised multiple concerns surrounding the 2022 traffic stop of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the alleged MS-13 gang member and citizen of El Salvador who was deported last month under President Donald Trump, by Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) officers.
On Wednesday, The Star reported that Abrego Garcia was suspected of being engaged in human trafficking by THP officers who detained him during a 2022 traffic stop on I-40 in Putnam County; however, he was let go at the time after the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) requested that the state officers release him and the seven passengers in the vehicle.
On Thursday night, a THP spokesman confirmed The Star’s reporting on the 2022 traffic stop of Abrego Garcia, saying in a statement, “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.”
During the nearly two-hour traffic stop, Abrego Garcia reportedly provided an expired Maryland temporary driver’s license and stated that he was transporting the seven other passengers from Texas to Maryland. The passengers did not have luggage, were unable to communicate in English, and seemed confused or uncooperative, which raised suspicion of human trafficking.
With regard to the traffic stop, Pappert raised multiple concerns, including why Abrego Garcia, who did not possess a valid license and was suspected of human trafficking, was released and why there was so little information gathered about the other passengers.
“This was not a quick little traffic stop. This was nearly two hours. I assume this began with one Tennessee Highway patrol officer. We now know the name of another officer who was there, so there were multiple officers showing up, trying to figure out what the heck was going on with this van. It’s been reported that Abrego Garcia was not being very cooperative as well. It’s being reported that he was answering the highway patrol officer’s questions with other questions and trying to evade giving proper answers,” Pappert explained on Friday’s edition of The Michael Patrick Leahy Show.
“Tennessee Highway Patrol contacted the FBI, the FBI, a source told us, instructed them to photograph all eight individuals, photograph the vehicle, photograph the contents of the vehicle. They contacted the FBI again after this was done and the FBI says, according to the Tennessee Highway Patrol, they made the decision not to detain him. Abrego Garcia was let go and apparently made it back to Maryland where he remained for almost three years until the Trump administration did something about it last month,” Pappert added.
Pappert explained how The Star attempted to get confirmation from THP and the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security about the traffic stop, but the agencies initially seemed responsive, but suddenly went silent, eventually deflecting the request as a public records matter.
“What we do know is that nobody in this vehicle was acting toward police officers as though they were mastering the English language, including Abrego Garcia, who had been living in the United States at that point for a decade or more. He claims to have crossed over in March of 2012. So from my understanding, nobody in this vehicle was speaking fluently. Nobody in this vehicle was cooperating with police,” Pappert said.
Pappert continued, “There is very little information and we’ve asked Tennessee Highway Patrol and the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, ‘What did you get from these guys, did you ask their name, their country of origin? Did you find out if these people are citizens?’ Crickets were the response to all of those questions.”
To THP’s claim that contacting the FBI during the 2022 traffic stop was “standard protocol,” Pappert said it simply makes “no sense” that the so-called protocol involving a driver with no valid license and suspected of human trafficking is considered “standard.”
“This is not standard protocol. None of it makes sense,” 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.
