Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal migrant whose deportation to El Salvador has garnered nationwide controversy, was once pulled over in a vehicle owned by a convicted human smuggler, federal authorities have confirmed.
Abrego Garcia was pulled over on a Tennessee highway in 2022 and suspected of human smuggling after local authorities discovered he was transporting eight passengers with no apparent luggage. The vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving belonged to Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, an illegal migrant who was sentenced to prison for human smuggling in 2020, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed Wednesday to the Daily Caller News Foundation.
When a Tennessee Highway Patrol officer stopped Abrego Garcia on Dec. 1, 2022, he was found to be driving eight other passengers across the country. He claimed that he was driving them from Texas to Maryland, but none of the individuals allegedly had any luggage on them and all claimed Abrego Garcia’s address as their own, according to court documents reviewed by the Daily Caller.
Abrego Garcia allegedly pretended to understand less English than he actually knew and attempted to confuse the law enforcement officer by responding to questions with his own questions. He told the officer that the vehicle he was driving belonged to his “boss” who worked in construction.
Despite allegedly not having a valid driver’s license and being suspected of smuggling the passengers, Abrego Garcia was ultimately let go at the request of the FBI and simply given a warning for driving on an expired license.
Hernandez-Reyes — the owner of the vehicle that Abrego Garcia was driving that day, and the man he allegedly referred to as his “boss” — is a Mexican national who unlawfully entered the United States before pleading guilty to smuggling illegal migrants, according to DHS. Just The News first reported Abrego Garcia’s connection to Hernandez-Reyes.
Despite being a suspected MS-13 gang member and alleged wife beater, Democrats have gone above and beyond in demands to bring Abrego Garcia back into the U.S. Maryland Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen flew down to El Salvador to meet with the alleged gang member, and, several days later, four Democratic congressmen also traveled to the country to demand his return.
Abrego Garcia was among more than 200 Venezuelan and Salvadoran nationals deported out of the country in March and sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a mega-prison built by President Nayib Bukele to house his country’s gang population and other heinous criminals. While the White House has acknowledged in court filings that his deportation was the result of a clerical error, the administration has stood by his removal due to his alleged gang ties and other alleged criminal activity.
Local law enforcement in Prince George’s County, Maryland arrested Abrego Garcia in March 2019, where he was observed loitering with two other confirmed MS-13 members, according to documents released by the Department of Justice. A “past proven reliable source” informed the Prince George’s Police Department that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 and allegedly identified his nickname and rank within the gang.
An immigration judge in 2019 determined that he was a member of MS-13, denying his request for release from bond, according to court documents. When he appealed this decision to the Board of Immigration Appeals, the Board ruled in the judge’s favor, deciding that Abrego Garcia had not sufficiently proven he wasn’t a gang member.
Abrego Garcia was ultimately released after successfully requesting a withholding of removal order. That order, which is similar to asylum, barred his deportation to El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia’s alleged gang ties are not the only past incidents coming back to hurt his image with the public.
DHS earlier in April released a domestic violence restraining order previously sought by Abrego Garcia’s wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura in 2021. Despite fighting for his return to the U.S., Sura once claimed that her husband repeatedly became aggressive and hurt her during their marriage, swearing in court documents that he once “punched, scratched me on my left eye, leaving me bleeding,” among other alleged beatdowns.
Bukele has made clear he won’t hand Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. However, court documents confirm he is no longer being held in CECOT but is now in “a room of his own with a bed and furniture, and that he was not in a cell.”
(Featured Image Media Credit: Screenshot/YouTube/Fox 5 Atlanta)
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