Bodycam Released: Garcia Caught with 8 Passengers, $1,400 Cash, No License — “He’s Hauling These People for Money”; Biden’s ICE Let Him Go

Tennessee authorities released body camera footage in May 2025 from a November 2022 traffic stop of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — the deported MS-13 member at the center of the national deportation debate. Highway Patrol pulled Garcia over for speeding and swerving, discovering eight male passengers crammed into a vehicle with an extra row of seats installed. Garcia had $1,400 in cash and a suspended Maryland driver’s license. A trooper was heard saying: “He’s hauling these people for money.” Garcia gave contradictory statements — claiming he was headed to Maryland, then to another town for “construction work.” No luggage was found. Despite the overwhelming evidence of human trafficking, Biden-era ICE failed to respond, and Garcia was released. He was eventually deported to El Salvador’s CECOT facility under the Trump administration.

The Traffic Stop

Tennessee Highway Patrol pulled Garcia over on November 30, 2022, for speeding and swerving on the highway.

The bodycam captured the initial exchange. The trooper noted the violations: “You drive fast, you’re in registration and you’re briefly insured.”

Garcia explained his license situation: “The problem with my license right now — it’s suspended. It’s suspended because I am in permanent employment, so like two years experience. Right now I’m waiting for a paper for migration.”

When asked where he lived, Garcia said: “Maryland.”

When asked whose vehicle it was: “My boss.”

He described his boss: “My boss right now is staying in Maryland, but he’s planning on texting us.”

The trooper asked where they were coming from: “San Luis.”

He asked what kind of work: “Construction.”

Garcia’s story shifted throughout the stop. He initially claimed to be driving from St. Louis to Maryland. Then he said he was headed to another town for a construction project. Then he mentioned yet another destination. The contradictory statements were a classic indicator of deception — a driver who couldn’t keep his cover story straight because the truth was that he was transporting human cargo for money.

Eight Passengers, Extra Seats

The trooper’s discovery of the vehicle’s contents was captured in real time.

“How many rows have you got in here?” the trooper asked. “Four? Four seats?”

He noted the modification: “Did y’all put an extra one in?”

Garcia denied it: “No. They come like this.”

The trooper was skeptical: “I’ve never seen one with that many seats in it.”

Another trooper assessed the situation off-camera: “You know what you got here? He’s hauling these people for money. That’s what he’s doing.”

The trooper continued: “There’s eight people in there. And they put an extra row of seats in. He’s getting paid to haul them, probably to Maryland.”

The modified vehicle — with an additional row of seats installed to maximize passenger capacity — was a signature of human smuggling operations. Legitimate construction crews did not install extra seating to transport workers. Smugglers did, because every additional body in the vehicle represented additional payment.

The absence of luggage was another trafficking indicator. If eight men were legitimately traveling from St. Louis to Maryland for construction work — a journey of hundreds of miles — they would have brought clothes, tools, and personal items. The empty vehicle suggested the passengers had nothing because they had been recently smuggled across the border and were being transported to their final destinations.

$1,400 Cash, No Insurance

The trooper documented the financial evidence.

Garcia had $1,400 in cash on his person — a sum consistent with payment for smuggling services. At typical rates, transporting eight people from a border staging area to the East Coast could generate thousands in fees, with the driver’s cut being the cash on hand.

Garcia could not produce insurance for the vehicle. His Maryland driver’s license was suspended. The vehicle was registered to his “boss” — a person Garcia identified but could not clearly explain his relationship to.

Subsequent investigation revealed that Garcia’s “boss” was Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes — a convicted human trafficker who had pleaded guilty to conspiring to smuggle illegal aliens across the country and was sentenced in 2020. The connection between Garcia and a convicted smuggler confirmed what the Tennessee trooper had assessed on the spot: “He’s hauling these people for money.”

Biden’s ICE Failed to Respond

The most damning element of the bodycam footage was what happened after the stop. Despite the trooper’s assessment that Garcia was engaged in human trafficking — eight passengers, modified vehicle, cash, no luggage, contradictory statements, connection to a convicted trafficker — ICE failed to respond to the Tennessee Highway Patrol’s notification.

Under the Biden administration’s enforcement priorities, a traffic stop involving a suspected human trafficker with a suspended license, eight undocumented passengers, and $1,400 in cash was not sufficient to trigger an ICE response. Garcia was released.

The failure was not an isolated incident. It was the systematic result of Biden-era policies that deprioritized immigration enforcement. ICE agents had been instructed to focus only on “national security threats” — a category so narrowly defined that an MS-13 member caught in the act of human trafficking did not qualify.

The Pattern of Evidence

The bodycam footage added to the mountain of evidence establishing Garcia as a dangerous criminal:

A 2019 deportation order issued by a federal judge. MS-13 gang membership confirmed by two separate judges, based on confidential informant testimony and gang symbols. The 2022 traffic stop with eight passengers in a modified vehicle, $1,400 cash, and a connection to a convicted human trafficker. Domestic violence protective orders filed by his wife in 2020 and 2021.

This was the man Sen. Chris Van Hollen had traveled to El Salvador to visit. This was the man the media had called a “Maryland man.” This was the man whose deportation Democrats called unconstitutional. The bodycam footage showed the reality that the media’s narrative had obscured: a gang member engaged in human trafficking, caught in the act, and released by an administration that refused to enforce the law.

Key Takeaways

• Tennessee bodycam shows Garcia pulled over with 8 passengers in a modified vehicle — “he’s hauling these people for money.”
• Garcia had $1,400 cash, a suspended license, no insurance, no luggage, and contradictory statements about his destination.
• His “boss” was Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes — a convicted human trafficker sentenced in 2020.
• Biden’s ICE failed to respond to the traffic stop despite overwhelming trafficking indicators — Garcia was released.
• The footage added to existing evidence: 2019 deportation order, MS-13 membership (two judges), and domestic violence protective orders.