The wrongfully deported dad at the center of a protracted battle with the Trump administration says he was tortured in El Salvador’s notorious megaprison.
In March, the Trump administration deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia—which the Department of Justice acknowledged it had done in error—to the Center for Terrorism Confinement, or CECOT, where he says he was kicked and beaten as soon as he got off the plane, leaving his body covered in bruises and lumps, according to court filings.
The Department of Homeland Security had accused Abrego Garcia of being an MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia’s family and attorneys have denied the claims.
At CECOT, Abrego Garcia was confined in an overcrowded cell with 20 other inmates, who were “forced to kneel from approximately 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion,” according to the filing. Abrego Garcia soiled himself after allegedly being denied bathroom access.
He says he endured inadequate nutrition and was deprived of sleep, with bright lights kept on around the clock. The metal bunks also lacked mattresses.
Within two weeks, he lost more than 30 pounds, according to the court filing.
After months of legal wrangling, the administration returned the 29-year-old father to the United States in May, but locked him up again on charges of human smuggling. He remains in custody.
The new details of Abrego Garcia’s treatment came in a lawsuit that his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed against the Trump administration over his deportation. The suit seeks to hold the administration in contempt and impose fines, arguing it defied court orders to return him to the U.S.
Abrego Garcia allegedly witnessed prisoners violently harm each other, with screams ringing out from nearby cells throughout the night, but staff refused to intervene.
Prison officials repeatedly taunted him by threatening to “transfer him to cells containing gang members who, they assured him, would ‘tear’ him apart,” the filing said.
In April, after nearly a month at the maximum-security prison, he was transferred to a lower-security facility in Santa Ana, El Salvador, but not before he was forced to appear in a staged photo “with mattresses and better food.”
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) dismissed his account as a “sob story” in a post on X, and said the media was “falling all over themselves to defend” him.
Once again the media is falling all over themselves to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia. This illegal alien is an MS-13 gang member, alleged human trafficker, and a domestic abuser. The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart,… pic.twitter.com/LqvKFeotFG
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) July 3, 2025
Abrego was shielded from deportation to his native El Salvador by a 2019 court order. The Trump administration was forced to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. after the Supreme Court ruled in April that his removal was “illegal” and upheld a lower court judge’s order requiring his return.
But upon his return, the Department of Justice unsealed human smuggling charges against him in Tennessee, which stem from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee where he was allegedly driving a van full of other undocumented migrants.
Abrego Garcia’s attorneys called the charges “preposterous” and an attempt to retroactively justify his wrongful deportation. He has pleaded not guilty.
At the same time, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has made clear that it intends to deport Abrego Garcia again—this time to a different country. His attorneys have asked that he remain in federal custody, fearing that, if released, ICE would immediately detain him.
The post Deported Dad Says He Was Beaten and Tortured in Salvadoran Megaprison appeared first on The Daily Beast.
