The Trump administration has painted a wrongly deported Maryland man as a human trafficker. Homeland Security says local authorities raised that suspicion during a Tennessee traffic stop.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was pulled over by Tennessee Highway Patrol for speeding on Interstate 40 in December 2022. In the vehicle were eight other people and no luggage.
Those troopers contacted federal law enforcement officials, who they say instructed them not to detain him.
Since his deportation and subsequent incarceration in El Salvador’s CECOT prison, the Trump administration has called Abrego Garcia a human trafficker and a member of MS-13, a newly designated terrorist organization. Abrego Garcia’s case has become a flashpoint between the White House, courts and Congress.
In a separate statement from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, officials said he was pulled over for speeding and driving erratically.
The DHS officials said the police officers suspected Abrego Garcia of human trafficking.
“A police officer identified eight other people in the car with no luggage,” the DHS news release said. “They all gave Abrego Garcia’s address as their home address.”
DHS released an internal summary of the Dec. 1 stop to USA TODAY on April 18 along with a still body-cam image of Abrego Garcia driving the vehicle.
Abrego Garcia told police he was driving from Houston to Temple Hills, Maryland to bring in people to perform construction work.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a MS-13 gang member, illegal alien from El Salvador, and suspected human trafficker,” said DHS Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin. “The facts reveal he was pulled over with eight individuals in a car on an admitted three-day journey from Texas to Maryland with no luggage. The facts speak for themselves, and they reek of human trafficking.”
USA TODAY has requested copies of the traffic stop from Tennessee officials. The Justice Department has not mentioned the traffic stop in any court filings related to Abrego Garcia’s removal.
Abrego Garcia’s wife told USA TODAY he routinely drove workers to their jobs.
“Kilmar worked in construction and sometimes transported groups of workers between job sites, so it’s entirely plausible he would have been pulled over while driving with others in the vehicle,” Jennifer Vasquez Sura said. “He was not charged with any crime or cited for any wrongdoing.”
U.S. officials continue to contend that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 criminal gang. Abrego Garcia denies being a member of the gang, and he has no criminal record.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who is handling the case, has questioned the strength of the government’s evidence, which relies on a confidential informant and the clothing Garcia was wearing in the 2019 police encounter.
