(Ken Silva, Headline USA) The now-infamous “Maryland man” Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been returned to the U.S. to faces charges of trafficking immigrants into the country, nearly three months after the Trump administration deported him to his native El Salvador in contravention of a judge’s decision.
The charges stem from a 2022 vehicle stop in which the Tennessee Highway Patrol suspected him of human trafficking. A report released by the Department of Homeland Security in April states that none of the people in the vehicle had luggage, while they listed the same address as Abrego Garcia.
Abrego Garcia is the El Salvador national who was deported in March on the grounds that he’s a suspected MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia was deported despite the fact that an immigration judge granted him special protection from removal around 2019, on the grounds that a local gang in El Salvador was extorting his family. The mainstream media has often referred to the alleged MS-13 gang member simply as a “Maryland man.”
Along with charging Abrego Garcia, the DOJ is now also probing why the FBI ordered the Tennessee Highway Patrol to release him during a traffic stop in 2022—when he was found to have been driving a vehicle with eight individuals who had been allegedly smuggled into the U.S.
🚨 JUST IN: Bodycam footage of deported MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia showing him SMUGGLING EIGHT ILLEGALS has been obtained by Fox News
“He’s hauling these people for money,” a trooper says
WHY DID THE BIDEN FBI ORDER HIM RELEASED?! pic.twitter.com/J8p7Lvxewt
— Nick Sortor (@nicksortor) May 2, 2025
According to ABC News, the DOJ interviewed the owner of the vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving in 2022. That man, Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, is also an illegal immigrant and accused human smuggler. ABC News said federal agents interviewed him late last month at the Federal Correctional Institution in Talladega, Alabama. Reyes was reportedly given “limited immunity” to talk about Abrego Garcia.
“Hernandez-Reyes told investigators that he previously operated a ‘taxi service’ based in Baltimore. He claimed to have met Abrego Garcia around 2015 and claimed to have hired him on multiple occasions to transport undocumented migrants from Texas to various locations in the United States,” ABC reported, citing anonymous sources familiar with the investigation.
“The frequency and time frame of the alleged trips was not immediately clear,” ABC reported. “It’s unclear whether prosecutors will ultimately gather enough evidence to bring charges against Abrego Garcia. The interview of Hernandez-Reyes, however, appears to be a new and aggressive step in the government’s efforts to gather potentially incriminating information about Abrego Garcia’s background.”
Ken Silva is the editor of Headline USA. Follow him at x.com/jd_cashless.
