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Deported El Salvadoran [Abrego Garcia] stopped in car owned by alien who pleaded guilty to human smuggling charges
Just The News ^ | April 22, 2025 | Steven Richards and John Solomon

Posted on 04/23/2025 5:46:37 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the deported El Salvadoran at the center of the Trump administration’s immigration battle with the courts, was stopped by police in an SUV owned by a man who was himself deported after pleading guilty to smuggling illegal aliens in 2020, according to court and Homeland Security Department intelligence documents reviewed by Just the News.

These new details follow Just the News reporting last week that Abrego Garcia was flagged in 2022 by the Biden administration as a "suspect alien" who was possibly involved in “human smuggling/trafficking” after a traffic stop in Tennessee raised the suspicions of a state trooper, according to internal Homeland Security documents.

The Trump administration alleges Abrego Garcia is a member of the notorious El Salvadoran gang MS-13 based on Maryland police identifications and deported him last month back to his home country.

Family and lawyers deny any connection to the gang and are fighting the deportation, arguing it violates a 2019 order that protected Abrego Garcia from being sent back to El Salvador. Meanwhile, a growing body of evidence suggests the illegal immigrant wasn’t the peaceful, law-abiding father "from Maryland," as his wife and lawyers have claimed in the news media.

When Abrego Garcia was stopped in 2022 by the Tennessee state trooper, Homeland Security intelligence created a record of the encounter, Just the News reported. The El Salvadoran was driving a black 2001 Chevrolet Suburban and said he was transporting his passengers to Maryland from Texas for construction work, although the state trooper found no luggage in the SUV.

Homeland Security documents identified the owner of the vehicle as Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes. Abrego Garcia told the state trooper that the owner was his boss. However, that SUV was flagged separately by the Homeland Security Investigations Baltimore field office as belonging to a target they suspected of human trafficking or smuggling, the documents show.

"Vehicle is used by HSI Baltimore target in human smuggling/trafficking operation. Vehicle makes trips to southern border to pick up non-citizens," the record reads. The memo says the Baltimore HSI case agent should be notified if the vehicle is encountered.

Owner of SUV driven by Garcia deported in 2021, car was on 'watch list' Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, who Abrego Garcia claimed he was working for, had been previously convicted of smuggling illegal aliens into the United States.

In 2020, Hernandez Reyes, himself an illegal alien, pleaded guilty and was sentenced to 18 months in prison for smuggling fellow illegal aliens in the United States after he was stopped by law enforcement in Mississippi in a car with passengers from Mexico, El Salvador and Honduras. Homeland Security records indicate Hernandez Reyes’ “deport order” was reinstated in March 2021, as his 18-month sentence was nearing its end.

A Homeland Security official confirmed to Just the News that the Hernandez Reyes mentioned in both cases refer to the same individual. It is unclear what relationship Abrego Garcia has with Hernandez Reyes. Though he told the Tennessee trooper the vehicle was owned by his boss, Just the News has been unable to confirm whether Abrego Garcia actually worked for Hernandez Reyes.

Lawyers for Abrego Garcia did not respond to requests for comment from Just the News.

Despite this, the similarities between the traffic stops are striking. The Justice Department said that Hernandez Reyes and one co-defendant were stopped by police in Jackson County, Mississippi. The driver, Modesto Alvarez, was later determined to be Hernandez Reyes’ brother-in-law.

Investigators discovered that of the nine men, eight, including Hernandez Reyes, were illegally present in the United States. Three of the passengers—citizens of Mexico, El Salvador, and Honduras—were determined to have been previously deported from the United States and had illegally returned, the Justice Department said. They were charged with unlawful reentry to the United States.

Officers determined that Alvarez and Hernandez Reyes were transporting the illegal immigrants from their home base of Houston, Texas, to different locations throughout the United States.

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 also coming from Houston, Texas, according to the documents. Abrego Garcia’s expired driver’s license and lack of luggage in the car led the state trooper to suspect smuggling or trafficking was involved, the records show.

Hernandez Reyes in August 2020 pleaded guilty to smuggling illegal aliens and was sentenced to 18 months in prison followed by three years of supervised release, per the Justice Department. Upon completion of the prison sentence, Hernandez Reyes was slated to face deportation proceedings and become subject to a possible further 10 years in prison if he returns.

Unlike the Hernandez Reyes case, the trooper in the case did not arrest Abrego Garcia or escalate the investigation. But, Homeland Security picked up on the traffic stop through its computer-aided dispatch report system. Agents reviewed the target and determined he was a “suspect alien” and referred his matter for review to “passport control," the records show.

Garcia's previous arrest Three weeks later on Dec. 27, 2022, Homeland updated its records 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.

Although sympathetic media insist on referring to him as a "Maryland man," Abrego Garcia was previously arrested in 2019 with a group of men detained by Prince George County police in the Maryland suburbs of Washington, D.C. Garcia and his passengers “freely admitted being citizens and nationals of El Salvador by birth and that they were present in the United States illegally,” according to police records and immigration court documents released publicly by Attorney General Pam Bondi. They show that the Prince George County gang unit positively identified Abrego Garcia as a member of MS-13, Just the News previously reported. The judge agreed that it was likely that Garcia was indeed a gang member.

That same report showed Abrego Garcia was offered a chance to claim he needed humanitarian assistance for illness or had reason to seek refuge from persecution – two grounds for asylum – but he denied needing either. In fact, he told authorities he was willing to leave the United States, according to the documents. Abrego Garcia was subject to a court order prohibiting his removal to El Salvador on the grounds that he feared persecution.


TOPICS: Crime/Corruption; Foreign Affairs; News/Current Events
KEYWORDS: aliens; borders; crime; garcia; illegals; marylandman; tda

1 posted on 04/23/2025 5:46:37 AM PDT by Mr. Mojo
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To: Mr. Mojo

If the guy got a PARKING TICKET, he could be deported, per well-established International Law.
For that matter, even if he didn’t get a parking ticket, he could still be deported, again per well-established International Law.
Bottom line - a country ALWAYS has the right to deport anyone it chooses...until now, I guess.


2 posted on 04/23/2025 5:56:07 AM PDT by BobL
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To: Mr. Mojo

This poor guy, always in the wrong place at the wrong time.


3 posted on 04/23/2025 6:01:47 AM PDT by Raycpa
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To: Mr. Mojo

I’m impressed by indicators that the feds are using a database - somehow linked via local LEOs - which is proving effective against such perps.


4 posted on 04/23/2025 6:13:38 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: logi_cal869

That stated, part of me is also disturbed, because such a system could easily be used against us with a new administration...


5 posted on 04/23/2025 6:14:32 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: logi_cal869

What disturbs me is the left is still denying the truth about this criminal gang member, even after all this information is out there. That’s what we’re dealing with and unless Trump, Patel and Bondi start ending the deep state lawfare before the midterms, we’re going to have a similar second Trump term as the first. The Dems never stop, but the Repubs never look for retribution.


6 posted on 04/23/2025 6:19:44 AM PDT by Blue Highway (D)
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To: Mr. Mojo

I am so confused. If the illegal who owned the Suburban was deported in 20 did he sneak back in and buy the vehicle Abrego Garcia was driving in 22?

Some system we have


7 posted on 04/23/2025 6:29:34 AM PDT by RWGinger
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To: Blue Highway

What’s curious is the steady rollout of new info which paints both the perp and the dems in a damning light, almost like it was all planned.

The mental illness which defines the left dictates said denial under the banner of confirmation bias, driven overwhelmingly by an msm struggling to maintain relevance despite all the egg on their collective faces.

What seems to be missing - or perhaps slowly being rolled out, if signs bear out - is an organized media campaign from the WH designed to subvert the left’s efforts to reorganize and remain relevant moving to midterms. Steering the narrative is absolutely key to midterms.

I hope to see more of what I’m observing about this garcia case, despite the early missteps in court.


8 posted on 04/23/2025 6:32:21 AM PDT by logi_cal869 (-cynicus the "concern troll" a/o 10/03/2018 /!i!! &@$%&*(@ -)
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To: RWGinger

It didn’t say he was deported, or when if he was. It says he was ordered deported which under Biden and Obama didn’t mean anything. Trump’s ICE raids are focused on felons and *people with outstanding deportation orders*, some of which are 20 years old and never carried out.


9 posted on 04/23/2025 6:50:17 AM PDT by marron
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To: Mr. Mojo

The democrats are going to do all in their power to protect and defend the new Saint Kilmar.

When will they start painting larger than life portraits of him on city streets and setting up statues of their new deity in city parks?


10 posted on 04/23/2025 6:52:28 AM PDT by I want the USA back (America is once again GREAT!)
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To: Mr. Mojo

Talk about bum luck, what are the odds, he innocently just happened to borrow a car that was used for illegal smuggling, just bad luck I guess.


11 posted on 04/23/2025 6:55:20 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: Blue Highway
What disturbs me is the left is still denying the truth about this criminal gang member, even after all this information is out there

They denied the Hunter laptop story with mountains of proof it was real. It's why they are called the corrupt media and corrupt dems.

12 posted on 04/23/2025 6:56:30 AM PDT by 1Old Pro
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To: 1Old Pro

TWICE


13 posted on 04/23/2025 7:05:22 AM PDT by ridesthemiles (not giving up on TRUMP---EVER)
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To: 1Old Pro

And now that we have the power and the majority, we need to seek justice for these corrupt Dems. If not now, then when?


14 posted on 04/23/2025 7:25:44 AM PDT by Blue Highway (D)
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To: marron

I am talking about the other dude owner of the car. Doesn’t it say Hernandez Reyes was deported in 20?


15 posted on 04/23/2025 7:29:00 AM PDT by RWGinger
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To: RWGinger

It says his deportation order was “reinstated” which under Biden was not the same thing as actually deporting him. Obviously he already had a deportation order which had never been carried out. A lot of the people ICE is going after now are people who had deportation orders who were never actually deported.


16 posted on 04/23/2025 7:49:11 AM PDT by marron
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To: Mr. Mojo

ICE needs to round up ALL ILLEGAL ALIENS IN AMERICA and drop them off in Maryland. Tell them they won’t be deported unless they try to leave Maryland. I hope the Maryland MS-13 boyz are waiting for Dopey Abrago to return “home” to Maryland now that they know where he is. I’d like to see if they are really out to kill him.


17 posted on 04/23/2025 7:51:43 AM PDT by FlingWingFlyer (Why are the DemonRATS so afraid of a Department of GOVERNMENT EFFICIENCY?)
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To: marron

thanks. It was confusing. Hate what Biden/etc did to our country


18 posted on 04/23/2025 7:57:45 AM PDT by RWGinger
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