Abrego Garcia says he endured assault and tortured in a Salvador prison
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Kilmer Abrego Garcia is an immigrant in Salvador Trump administration According to court filings, El Salvador was beaten and psychologically tortured while in detention within the country. One of the many disclosures was revealed just days before a major hearing in Maryland.
Status hearings in Greenbelt, Maryland almost ensure that they closely monitor Abrego Garcia’s legal battle over his legal status in the United States.
In a new court filing filed with District Judge Paula Sinis, lawyers for Abrego Garcia outlined a long list of abuses his clients had submitted to terrorism confinement centres, or Cecot, the infamous anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador, which includes lack of sleep, psychological torture and intense be-stripping.
These abuses are said to have started the moment the immigrants arrived in prison in March. There they were greeted by prison guards who said, “Welcome to Cecot. Those who enter here will not leave.”
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Secretary of State Marco Rubio, President Donald Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondy during Cabinet meetings at the White House. (Samuel Comb/Cipa/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
According to court documents, Abrego Garcia was soon collapsed into his cell by prison guards.
He and other detainees in the cell slept on metal mattresses, minimizing access to food and saturation. They were also forced to kneel “securities hitting someone who has fallen from fatigue” for about nine hours, from 9pm to 6am.
Abrego Garcia’s health deteriorated rapidly – within two weeks his lawyer said he had lost about 31 pounds.
He was also psychologically tortured and threatened with violence during his time at CECOT, prison guards repeatedly said he would transfer him to other prison cells that house members of the violent gang.
In fact, Abrego Garcia “does violently harm each other without intervention from security guards or personnel,” said Abrego Garcia “he repeatedly observed prisoners in nearby cells.”
“The screams from nearby cells will similarly ring all night, without any response from prison guards or staff,” they said.
It appears, in part, underscores the recurring claims of administration officials that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.
On January 27, 2025, inmates at the Centre for Anti-Terrorism Control (CECOT) in Tecolka, El Salvador. (Marvin Recinos/AFP via Getty Images)
The eye-opening conditions of CECOT listed in the filing are one of several issues that are expected to come to the prime minister on Monday, when Judge Sinis holds the hearing. Maryland Green Belt.
There, she considers the gusts of recent allegations from both the Trump administration and the legal team of Abrego Garcia. This considers sanctioning officials on government claims dismissing the case as a dispute or requests from plaintiffs who allegedly failed to promote their return to the United States.
His lawyers argue that the case is not a controversy as Xinis can still order his return to Maryland. They asked this week that she ordered him to return to the district from Tennessee, where he was sent when he returned to the United States to face criminal charges. They also pointed to a statement from the Trump administration, demanding that Xinis Block Abrego Garcia block the possibility of removal from the United States without prior notice.
“The defendant has repeatedly stated his intention to take Abrego Garcia to a third country,” his lawyer said in his application Wednesday, adding that he could face persecution or torture if removed directly by various other countries, including Libya, South Sudan and Eritrea, which are famous for human rights abuse.
Adding the complexity of the matter is another criminal case that unfolds in Tennessee.
A federal judge who oversaw the case Thursday ordered the Trump administration to comply with rules that prohibit Justice Department and DHS officials from issuing public statements about Abrego Garcia.
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Secretary Christy Noem will make a statement to staff at DHS headquarters on January 28, 2025. (Manuel Barth Seneto Pool/Getty Images)
Abrego Garcia’s lawyer told the judge in another application Wednesday night that the Trump administration has been doing “Abrego” for months “relentlessly” attacking “special, broad and inflammatory comments” about the likely harming the right to a fair trial (Abrego), despite the fact that he has not yet been tried since his indictment.
They said U.S. Magistrate Judge Judge Barbara Holmes, the judge who oversees the criminal case, ordered a pending trial for his release, citing the lack of evidence presented by the government in his June arrest and “double hearsay.”
“So far, the government’s declining public disparity against Abrego has far surpassed its ability to gather actual evidence despite extraordinary efforts to remind us of such evidence,” they said.
The next step here remains deeply uncertain given the complexity of the case and the dual nature of civil and criminal cases.
Xinis has previously expressed frustration and impatience with the Trump administration, as it slowly monitors certain requests and fails to comply with court requests for discovery.
She disciplined her multiple times for explaining her to a Justice Department lawyer as an “ambiguous, avoidant and incomplete” answer.
The parties will appear in court at 11am Monday.