Court records show that the Trump administration has agreed to spare from deportation a key witness in the federal prosecution of Kilmar Ábrego García in exchange for his cooperation in the case.
José Ramón Hernández Reyes, 38, has been convicted of smuggling migrants and illegally re-entering the United States after having been deported. He also pleaded guilty to “deadly conduct” in connection with a separate incident where he drunkenly fired a gun in a Texas community.
Records reviewed by the Washington Post show that Hernández Reyes has been released early from federal prison to a halfway house and has been given permission to stay in the US for at least a year.
Prosecutors have identified Hernández Reyes as the “first cooperator” in the case against Ábrego García, according to court filings. The Department of Homeland Security maintains that Hernández owned the SUV that Ábrego García 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 Ábrego García.
Hernández Reyes is among a handful of cooperating witnesses who could help the administration deport Ábrego García.
Ábrego García, a construction worker who had been living in Maryland, became a flashpoint over Trump’s hardline 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 Ábrego García asked a federal judge in Tennessee to delay his release from jail because of “contradictory statements” by the administration over whether or not he will be deported upon release.
A federal judge in Nashville has been preparing to release Ábrego García to await trial on human smuggling charges. But she has been holding off over concerns that US Immigration and Customs Enforcement would swiftly detain him and try to deport him again.
Ábrego García’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.
Ábrego García has pleaded not guilty.
