The Tennessee Star on Friday obtained an image of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national deported last month by the Trump administration, which was captured by a Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) body camera during the agency’s now-confirmed stop of the illegal immigrant in late 2022.
The image is captured from the passenger side of the vehicle, showing one of Abrego Garcia’s seven passengers sitting next to him. In the image, Abrego Garcia is depicted looking toward the officer from the driver’s seat, with one hand visible, while the passenger stares directly forward. Both men appear to be wearing seat belts.
Within the image, Abrego Garcia’s vehicle, which a source told The Star was a 2001 Chevrolet that Abrego Garcia claimed was registered to his employer at a Maryland construction company, appears to contain little personal effects, though a bottle of water and plastic bag are visible on its dashboard.
THP confirmed the 2022 stop to The Star on Thursday night, including The Star’s reporting that the “Biden-era FBI” instructed officers at the scene to release Abrego Garcia and his passengers after photographing them and their vehicle, but THP did not confirm the date of the incident.
Sources have additionally told The Star that Abrego Garcia was driving without a valid license, and that the circumstances of the stop made THP suspect he was engaged in human trafficking.
Curiously, The Star was told by multiple sources that this stop occurred on December 6, 2022, while Just The News later reported the stop happened in November 2022, and The Daily Caller reported on Thursday that it happened on December 1, 2022.
The image obtained by The Star appears to suggest that at least one officer’s body camera video of the incident was not uploaded to a police database until January 9, 2023, potentially indicating that THP continued to investigate the stop, even after the “Biden-era FBI” instructed the agency to release Abrego Garcia and his associates. It could also indicate that video from the incident was requested by the FBI.
The Star obtained the image less than one day after it filed an Open Records Request with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS), which oversees THP, seeking all dashboard and body camera video from the incident, as well as photographs, computerized dispatch records, officer logs, and any other THP documentation of the stop. THP and TDOSHS have yet to confirm receipt of the request.
Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who reportedly told law enforcement he immigrated illegally to the United States in March 2012. By 2019, two judges determined Abrego Garcia is likely to be a member of the Central American gang, Mara Salvatrucha (MS-13), but he and his family have denied this claim, which led an immigration judge to issue a “withholding of removal” order that year, preventing his deportation to his home country but not a third destination.
The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador last month, though a U.S. District Court and the U.S. Supreme Court have ordered the administration to take steps to facilitate his return in order for his immigration case to proceed in the United States.
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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].
Why did THP bow to the FBI? This illegal alien without a DL engaged in human trafficking should have been detained and then handed over to the FBI or ICE for prosecution and DEPORTATION!