New court filings detail man’s ordeal after his mistaken deportation became a flashpoint in Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man legally residing in the US state of Maryland, whom the Trump administration mistakenly deported in a high-profile case in March, was severely beaten and subjected to psychological torture in prison there, his lawyers say.
The alleged abuse was detailed in court documents filed in Abrego Garcia’s civil lawsuit against the Trump administration on Wednesday, providing an account of his experiences following his deportation for the first time.
Abrego Garcia’s case has become a flashpoint in the US government’s controversial immigration crackdown since he was mistakenly deported to his native El Salvador in March, despite an earlier order by an immigration judge barring such a move.
According to his lawyers, Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador as a teenager to avoid gang violence, arriving in the United States around 2011. He has lived for more than a decade in Maryland, where he and his American wife are raising three children.
He was returned to the US last month and is currently locked in a legal battle with the US government, which has indicted him on charges of migrant smuggling and says it plans to deport him to a third country.
“Plaintiff Abrego Garcia reports that he was subjected to severe mistreatment upon arrival at CECOT, including but not limited to severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture,” his lawyers said in the filing, referring to the Salvadoran mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Centre, or CECOT.
Severe beatings, threats
The filings, made in a civil suit in federal court against the US government brought by Abrego Garcia’s wife in Maryland, said her husband was hit and kicked so frequently upon his arrival at the prison that the next day his body was covered in lumps and bruises.
The filings also said he and other inmates were forced to kneel for nine hours straight throughout the night, or were hit by guards, in a cruel exercise of sleep deprivation.
It said prison staff repeatedly threatened to transfer Abrego Garcia to cells with gang members who would “tear” him apart, and claimed that he lost 31 pounds (14kg) in his first two weeks in jail as a result of the abuse.
‘Administrative error’
Abrego Garcia was detained by immigration officials and deported to El Salvador on March 15. Trump and US officials have accused him of belonging to the notorious MS-13 gang, which he denies.
The deportation took place despite an order from a US immigration judge in 2019, which barred Abrego Garcia from being sent back to El Salvador because he likely faced persecution there from gangs.
Abrego Garcia’s treatment gained worldwide attention, with critics of Trump’s aggressive immigration policy saying it demonstrated how officials were ignoring due process in their zeal to deport migrants. The Trump administration later described the deportation as an “administrative error”.
Last month, the US government complied with a directive from the court to return Abrego Garcia to the US, but only after having secured an indictment charging him with working with coconspirators as part of a smuggling ring to bring immigrants to the US illegally.
He is currently being detained in Nashville, Tennessee, while his criminal case is pending, having pleaded not guilty to illegally transporting undocumented immigrants.
The US government is arguing that the new civil suit is now moot, as Abrego Garcia has been returned from El Salvador. It has said it plans to deport him to a third country after he is released from custody.
Abrego Garcia a ‘criminal’ for DHS
In the wake of the latest court filings, the Trump administration doubled down on its attacks on Abrego Garcia as a dangerous illegal immigrant.
In a post on the social media platform X, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) said the “media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart”.
“Once again the media is falling all over themselves to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” it said.
“This illegal alien is an MS-13 gang member, alleged human trafficker, and a domestic abuser,” DHS claimed, without providing any evidence.