Tennessee highway patrol releases body-cam footage of 2022 traffic stop with Kilmar Abrego Garcia

The Tennessee Highway Patrol on Thursday released its bodycam footage of a traffic stop interaction it had with alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia in 2022. 

Abrego Garcia was deported by the Trump administration earlier this year, but has become the face of one of the biggest deportation cases in recent history. Democrats have argued that Abrego Garcia was a peaceful, law-abiding man from Maryland prior to his deportation.

The footage, which was obtained by Fox News through a public records request, appeared to show highway patrol troopers being concerned that the illegal migrant was involved in human trafficking because he had eight other people in his car.

"How many rows have you got in here? Four seats? Four rows of seats?" one state trooper can be heard saying in the video. "Did y'all put an extra one in? Huh? Did y'all put another one in? No? They come like this? I've never seen one with that many seats in it."

Abrego Garcia was initially pulled over for a speeding violation, highway patrol said, but they got suspicious of human trafficking when they saw the amount of people in the car. The migrant also kept changing his story about what he was doing, and carried $1,400 in cash they suspected was his payment.

A source told the outlet that an unreleased part of the video includes officers discussing calling Immigrations and Customs Enforcement (ICE) to pick up Abrego Garcia, which they did, but ICE did not show. The source also said they were warned the migrant was suspected of being a gang member or terrorist when they put his name into a national database. 

Misty Severi is a news reporter for Just The News. You can follow her on X for more coverage.