"This is a good stop," one trooper said to another on November 30, 2022.
Body camera footage, obtained by Scripps News Group through a Freedom of Information Act request, shows the encounter Kilmar Abrego Garcia had with Tennessee Highway Patrol.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who lives in Maryland, is currently being detained in El Salvador after having been deported by the Trump Administration.
Related: U.S. confirms Abrego Garcia transferred out of El Salvador's terrorism confinement center
Justice Department officials have noted in court records that his deportation to El Salvador was an "administrative error."
There was a court order saying he was not allowed to be deported to the country.
The Trump administration has said that he is an MS-13 gang member.
In Tennessee in 2022, Abrego Garcia was initially pulled over for speeding.
About 15 minutes into the stop, one trooper pulls the trooper who initiated the stop aside and says he suspects Abrego Garcia of human trafficking.
"You know what you've got, right?" the trooper says. "You've got an a** hauler."
Abrego Garcia was up front when he was first pulled over, stating that he had a suspended license and was waiting on paperwork to renew it.
The stop lasted about an hour, and there was a lot of discussion of the possibility that this was human trafficking.
Troopers counted 10 people in the car, not including Abrego Garcia, and noted that there was no luggage.
However, they didn't arrest Abrego Garcia.
"If he gets arrested," one of the troopers says, "you're not gonna have any choice but to just dump them out on the side of the interstate."
There are several portions of the body camera footage where the audio is removed, so it's not entirely clear how or why troopers came to their final determination.
