WASHINGTON – According to court records, the Trump administration has agreed to spare a crucial witness in the federal prosecution of Kilmar Abrego Garcia from deportation in exchange for the witness’s cooperation in the case.
Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes, 38, was found guilty of smuggling migrants and unlawfully reentering the U.S. after being deported. Additionally, he admitted to engaging in “deadly conduct” by drunkenly discharging a firearm in a Texas neighborhood.
Based on documents analyzed by The Washington Post, Hernandez Reyes has been released early from federal incarceration to a halfway house and has been granted authorization to remain in the country for a minimum of one year.
Prosecutors have identified Hernandez Reyes as the “first cooperator” in the case against Abrego, according to court filings. The Department of Homeland Security maintains that Hernandez owned the SUV that Abrego Garcia was allegedly using to smuggle migrants when the Tennessee Highway Patrol stopped him in 2022. That traffic stop is at the center of the criminal investigation against Abrego Garcia.
Hernandez Reyes is among a handful of cooperating witnesses who could help the administration deport Abrego Garcia.
Abrego Garcia, a construction worker who had been living in Maryland, became a flashpoint over Trump’s hard-line immigration policies when he was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March. Facing mounting pressure and a Supreme Court order, the administration returned him this month to face the smuggling charges, which his attorneys have called “preposterous.”
On Friday, attorneys for Abrego Garcia asked a federal judge in Tennessee to delay his release from jail because of “contradictory statements” by the administration over whether or not he’ll be deported upon release.
A federal judge in Nashville has been preparing to release Abrego Garcia to await trial on human smuggling charges. But she’s been holding off over concerns that U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement would swiftly detain him and try to deport him again.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys are now asking the judge to continue to detain him following statements by administration officials “because we cannot put any faith in any representation made on this issue by” the Justice Department.
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty.
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