The Trump administration's Department of Justice has been looking into illegal migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia's 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee, according to a report.
Abrego Garcia, whom the administration said it deported to El Salvador because he's a member of the MS-13 gang, was pulled over by Tennessee Highway Patrol in November 2022.
Federal investigators recently interrogated a convicted felon who's the registered owner of the vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving when pulled over for speeding with eight passengers, ABC News reported Tuesday.
Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, 38, currently is in an Alabama prison for illegally reentering the U.S. after previously being convicted of a felony. Also, in 2020, he was indicted for unlawful transportation of undocumented immigrants within the U.S.
Tennessee police allowed Abrego Garcia to drive on with just a warning about an expired driver's license, according to a report about the stop released last month by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
THP, in a statement last month, said troopers had contacted federal authorities before making that decision.
"The Tennessee Highway Patrol can confirm a 2022 traffic stop of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was stopped for speeding on I-40," a THP spokesperson said. "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."
Recently released bodycam video of Abrego Garcia being pulled by THP appeared to support police impressions that the illegal migrant was involved with human trafficking at the time.
Abrego Garcia told police the passengers had been working construction in Missouri.
Hernandez-Reyes told officials he previously operated a "taxi service" based in Baltimore, Maryland, and claimed he met Abrego Garcia around 2015. Hernandez-Reyes said he hired Abrego Garcia several times to transport fellow illegal migrants from Texas to various locations in the U.S., ABC News reported.
Abrego Garcia has been deported to El Salvador. Democrats and some Trump critics insist he should not have been deported and should be returned to the U.S.
The administration, which admits to a paperwork error in deporting the El Salvadoran, says the migrant would be quickly deported if he returned to the U.S.
Administration officials face deadlines this week to answer discovery requests about what steps officials have taken to comply with a district judge's order to retrieve Abrego Garcia from El Salvador.
The Associated Press contributed to this story.
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Charlie McCarthy, a writer/editor at Newsmax, has nearly 40 years of experience covering news, sports, and politics.
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