Abrego Garcia says he was severely beaten in Salvadoran prison

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported mistakenly from the U.S. to El Salvador in March, says he was brutally beaten and subjected to psychological torture while held in one of the Central American country’s most notorious prisons.

A document filed Wednesday in federal district court in Maryland says Garcia was “subjected to severe mistreatment” when he arrived at CECOT, a mega-prison located in Tecoluca, El Salvador. The court document says Abrego Garcia’s treatment included “severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture.”

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers shared the details about his treatment in CECOT in order to argue to a judge that he should not be deported to El Salvador, or any other country that could end up sending him there, “without prior notice and opportunity to be heard.”

The document describes how Abrego Garcia was stripped upon arrival at CECOT and “kicked in the legs with boots and struck on his head and arms to make him change clothes faster.” By the next day, “he had visible bruises and lumps all over his body.”

The detainees were held in overcrowded cells with metal bunks that did not have mattresses, and Abrego Garcia and 20 Salvadoran inmates were forced to kneel from approximately 9 p.m. to 6 a.m. “with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion,” according to the court filing. Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom breaks, and as a result, he soiled himself, the document says.

“While at CECOT, prison officials repeatedly told Plaintiff Abrego Garcia that they would transfer him to the cells containing gang members who, they assured him, would ‘tear’ him apart,” the document says, continuing that Garcia “repeatedly observed prisoners in nearby cells who he understood to be gang members violently harm each other with no intervention from guards or personnel.”

During his first two weeks at CECOT, the court document says Abrego Garcia’s health deteriorated significantly, and his weight dropped to 184 pounds from roughly 215 pounds. Although journalists are typically not allowed access to CECOT, the human rights organization Cristosal and other advocates have accused authorities of abuses and overcrowding at CECOT and other Salvadoran prisons.

In April, Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen tried to visit Abrego Garcia at CECOT, but by then, he had been transferred to a different facility in El Salvador, the Centro Industrial prison facility in Santa Ana. The court document says that before the transfer occurred, Abrego Garcia and four others were taken to a different part of CECOT and “photographed with mattresses and better food.”

In a statement from the Department of Homeland Security, Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin said: “Once again the media is falling all over themselves to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia.”

McLaughlin reiterated the administration’s claim that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member, a charge his family and attorneys strongly deny. She also reiterated the claim that he is a domestic abuser and added that the “media’s sympathetic narrative” about Abrego Garcia “has completely fallen apart, yet they continue to peddle his sob story.”

Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed orders of protection against him in 2020 and 2021 alleging physical and verbal abuse, according to DHS. After those allegations surfaced, Vasquez said that she dropped the charges and the couple worked through their issues privately.

NPR reached out to the embassy of El Salvador in Washington, D.C., but did not receive an immediate reply.

Abrego Garcia was arrested in March by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents and deported to El Salvador, despite a 2019 court order prohibiting his removal to the country due to fears of persecution.

Immigration officials said his deportation order was an “administrative error,” but later accused him of being affiliated with the MS-13 gang.

The Supreme Court in April ordered the administration to facilitate his return in order to give him proper due process in the U.S. About two months later, the Trump administration brought him back, but immediately detained him in Tennessee on federal charges of “conspiracy to unlawfully transport illegal aliens for financial gain” and “unlawful transportation of illegal aliens for financial gain.”

Since his return, a federal judge has ruled that Abrego Garcia is eligible for conditional release while awaiting trial. However, his attorneys have asked that he remain in jail over concerns that he could again be deported.