Video shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee

Jessica Schladebeck, New York Daily News on May 2, 2025

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Newly released video shows Kilmar Abrego Garcia interacting with Tennessee state troopers during a traffic stop back in 2022, an incident the Trump administration has used to justify his deportation from the United States to a notorious prison in El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia was driving from Texas to Maryland when he was stopped for speeding on Interstate 40 by Tennessee Highway Patrol troopers near Cookeville. The Department of Homeland Security referenced the interaction in a statement last month detailing a “bombshell investigative report” on a “suspected human trafficking incident” involving Abrego Garcia.

At the time of the traffic stop, a total of eight people were in the van, something one of the officers took note of at the start of the newly released clip, which was obtained by CNN on Friday. Overall, the interaction remains mostly cordial, with Abrego Garcia smiling at thanking the officers before he is allowed to drive off.

“You got a lot of people in here don’t you?” an officer can be heard saying.

Abrego Garcia tells the officer there’s one person in “every seat” in response, adding that they had recently finished a job in St. Louis. The troopers go on to tell him that he was traveling in a 75 mph in 65 mph zone before again questioning the number of people and seats in the van, which Abrego Garcia says belongs to his boss.

“Right now, I’m going back to home,” Abrego Garcia says before the trooper has a K-9 sniff the exterior of the vehicle.

At another point in the hourlong clip, one officer suggests that Abrego Garcia was getting paid to transport his passengers, “probably to Maryland.”

“He’s hauling people for money,” he says, before asking, “They don’t have any luggage in there, right? And if you get them out, they’re going have toothpaste and toothbrushes in their pocket. I guarantee it.”

In the end, Abrego Garcia was not charged, but officers “gave him a warning citation for driving with an expired driver’s license.” Abrego Garcia told the troopers during the stop that his license was suspended because he was waiting for an immigration paper. He also said he lived in Maryland.

A spokesperson for the Tennessee Highway Patrol told CNN that Abrego Garcia was flagged for federal law enforcement, “who chose not to detain him.” What’s more a redacted police report obtained by the outlet made no mention of human trafficking suspicions.

Abrego Garcia, 30, was deported to El Salvador in March and placed in its notorious CECOT mega-prison despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution. The Trump administration has since admitted Abrego Garcia’s removal was an “administrative error” but that his alleged MS-13 affiliation makes him ineligible to return to the United States.

Abrego Garcia’s family has meanwhile denied he has any gang affiliations.

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