A response to two Open Records Requests filed by The Tennessee Star with the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security (TDOSHS), the agency that oversees the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP), revealed that Kilmar Abrego Garcia was driving a vehicle registered in Texas when he was stopped in Cookeville, Tennessee on November 30, 2022 and suspected of human trafficking.
Though the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) has confirmed the vehicle driven by Abrego Garcia was registered to Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, a convicted human smuggler who was arrested in 2019 on a smuggling trip from Houston, Texas, where he lived, to the east coast, much of the information about the vehicle was redacted in the Computer-Aided Dispatch (CAD) report generated by the Tennessee Highway Patrol for The Star.
According to the document, the stop occurred on November 30, 2022, at 7:57 p.m., and lasted until 9:19 p.m. Though partially redacted, the CAD report documents THP’s actions, queries, and observations while Abrego Garcia was stopped on I-40 in Cookeville, part of Putnam County, Tennessee.
The CAD report revealed Abrego Garcia was driving a 2001 Chevrolet Suburban which either black or gray and currently registered in Texas, with the registration current as of June 13, 2022. The records were confirmed by the Tennessee Information Enforcement System (TIES), the National Crime Information Center (NCIC), and National Law Enforcement Telecommunications System (NLETS).
Despite DHS previously naming the vehicle’s owner as Hernandez Reyes, another Salvadoran who was convicted of human smuggling and deported in 2019, the ownership of the vehicle was redacted in the version of the CAD report provided to The Star by TDOSHS, with the report merely confirming that one person owned the vehicle in Texas.
The license plate number, registration number, and Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), were all redacted by the agency, which claimed privacy laws prohibit releasing the information.
Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who was deported in March by the Trump administration. He received a final deportation order in 2019 that contained a “withholding of removal” that barred him from being deported to one of two nations, either El Salvador or Guatemala, and Abrego Garcia has argued his deportation violated this order.
DHS has confirmed Abrego Garcia was suspected of human trafficking during the stop, when he was transporting eight passengers from Texas to Maryland without a valid license, as originally reported by The Star. He was nonetheless released, with THP telling The Star the orders for were given by the “Biden-era FBI.”
Prior to sending the CAD report pursuant to the Open Records Request, TDOSHS announced to The Star that some information would be redacted, as Abrego Garcia is now part of an ongoing investigation by the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ). A high ranking DOJ official declined to comment on the matter to The Star.
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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].
