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Biden administration flagged El Salvadoran Abrego Garcia as human smuggling suspect
Just The News ^ | 04/17/2025 | Steven Richards and John Solomon
Posted on 4/17/2025, 9:53:16 PM by SeekAndFind

The deported El Salvadoran man at the center of an intense court battle was flagged in 2022 by the Biden administration as a “suspect alien” who was possibly involved in “human smuggling/trafficking” after a traffic stop hundreds of miles from his Maryland home, according to Department of Homeland Security (DHS) documents reviewed by Just the News. The records don’t indicate whether the Biden administration ever followed up on the concerns.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was stopped in Tennessee for driving erratically and speeding by a state trooper in late November 2022 and was found to be driving an SUV full of people coming from Texas with an expired Maryland license, according to the documents. “Subject was observed speeding and unable to maintain its lane, and was subsequently pulled over,” one entry stated.

“Encountering officer decided not to cite the subject for driving infractions but gave him a warning citation for driving with an expired driver’s license,” the memo stated. Maryland is one of the states that issue driver’s licenses to illegal aliens.

Human trafficking concerns——The circumstances of the stop led the trooper to believe that human trafficking was involved, according to a summary of the incident recorded in Homeland’s immigration alert system on Dec. 6, 2022.

“During the interview, subject pretended to speak less English than he was capable of and attempted to put encountering officer off-track by responding to questions with questions,” the summary stated. “When asked what relationship he had with the registered owner of the vehicle, subject replied the owner of the vehicle is his boss, and that his work is in construction.”

“There was no luggage in the vehicle, leading the encountering officer to suspect this was a human trafficking incident,” the report stated. Homeland’s own system categorized the incident under the title “human smuggling/trafficking,” the memos show.

The records indicate the incident was located by Homeland Security Investigations during a review of computer-aided dispatch reports generated anytime law enforcement stops a suspect. There is no record showing whether the Biden’s DHS ever followed up on enforcing the matter.

The initial review determined that Abrego Garcia was a “suspect alien” and referred his matter for review to “passport control,” the records show. Three weeks later on Dec. 27, 2022, Homeland updated its record to urge all personnel who encountered Abrego Garcia in the future to “escort to secondary,” a term referring to the investigative procedures used when someone suspected of wrongdoing is encountered at a port of entry or by border patrol agents. snip