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yesterday

Prosecutors Grant Deportation Immunity to Key Witness in Abrego Garcia Case

The administration has guaranteed a year’s protection from deportation for its first cooperator in return for his testimony in the smuggling case.

Katheryn Millwee holds a portrait of Kilmar Abrego Garcia outside the federal courthouse Wednesday, June 25, 2025, in Nashville, Tenn. (AP Photo/George Walker IV)
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Overview

  • Court records confirm that the Trump administration agreed to shield Jose Ramon Hernandez Reyes from deportation for at least one year as the first cooperator against Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
  • Hernandez Reyes, 38, pleaded guilty to migrant smuggling, illegal reentry and deadly conduct for a drunken shooting, and was released early to a halfway house under the cooperation deal.
  • Department of Homeland Security records state that Hernandez Reyes owned the SUV Abrego Garcia allegedly used to smuggle migrants during a 2022 Tennessee Highway Patrol stop.
  • Kilmar Abrego Garcia remains detained in Tennessee pending trial on human smuggling charges after being mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March and returned under a Supreme Court order.
  • Abrego Garcia’s attorneys have filed to extend his detention over inconsistent government assurances that he will not face renewed deportation if released.