The illegal immigrant and suspected MS-13 gang member deported to El Salvador whom Democrats have rallied behind allegedly was driving the car of a convicted human smuggler during a 2022 traffic stop on a Tennessee highway.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia was stopped by a Tennessee state trooper for speeding and erratic driving. When an officer noticed the El Salvador national was with eight others and there was no luggage in their vehicle on their trip from Texas to Maryland, he suspected something was amiss, the New York Post reported Wednesday, citing a Department of Homeland Security memo it obtained last week.

Abrego Garcia, whose deportation last month by the Trump administration triggered a legal fight and outrage by Democrat lawmakers, claimed the SUV he was driving was owned by “his boss” at his construction job.

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