Kilmar Abrego Garcia hired by human smuggler to transport illegal immigrants across US: report

A convicted human smuggler linked to the 2022 Tennessee traffic stop of Kilmar Abrego Garcia has revealed to the Department of Justice that he previously hired Kilmar Abrego Garcia to transport illegal immigrants across the country. The smuggler, who owned the car that Abrego Garcia was stopped in, spoke with the DOJ after being granted "limited immunity."

Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes — the owner of the vehicle driven by Abrego Garcia, an MS-13 gang member from El Salvador — was recently interviewed by DOJ attorneys after being offered immunity, according to ABC News. Sources told the outlet that Hernandez Reyes told investigators he had operated a Baltimore-based "taxi service," and met Abrego Garcia around 2015. Hernandez Reyes said that he had hired Abrego Garcia on multiple occasions to transport illegal immigrants from Texas to locations around the country. 

Hernandez Reyes, a repeat offender, was convicted of human trafficking in 2020 and deported after serving 18 months in prison. He was ordered not to reenter the United States for three years, per The Tennessee Star. Hernandez Reyes, however, illegally returned to the US sometime after. He was arrested again in 2022 on firearm charges in Texas and served time. He was subsequently charged at the federal level with illegally entering the United States after previously being convicted of a felony and sentenced to 30 months. Hernandez Reyes was interviewed last month at the Federal Correctional Institution in Talladega, Alabama, sources told ABC.

Abrego Garcia, who illegally entered the US in 2012, was pulled over in Tennessee in 2022 by the Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) while transporting nine individuals without a valid driver’s license. DHS confirmed that troopers suspected Garcia of human trafficking. THP officers were reportedly told to release Garcia by the Biden administration's FBI.

Further revelations from bodycam footage released by the Tennessee Department of Safety show Abrego Garcia was carrying $1,400 in cash at the time of the stop. Hernandez Reyes was known to charge $350 per person for illegal transport services.

The Trump administration's March deportation of Abrego Garcia is being contested, with Abrego Garcia claiming it violated a 2019 immigration order that protected him from being removed to either El Salvador or Guatemala.