“Abrego Garcia submitted a harrowing and detailed account of abuse after the Trump administration illegally deported him.” Politico
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, illegally deported by the Trump administration, has given an account of his mistreatment in a Salvadoran prison. Abrego, a native of El Salvador, revealed details of his time in the country’s notorious anti-terrorism prison in a legal filing Wednesday. It’s the first time he has provided a firsthand description of his experience after the Trump administration summarily deported him there in March in violation of a court order. Politico
“Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn’t leave,” the court filing alleges Abrego Garcia heard upon arriving at the prison in El Salvador. . . . According to CBS and France24 who took the picture below:
The allegations of physical and psychological torture emerged in a legal filing by attorneys for Abrego Garcia in Maryland federal court, seeking to amend his lawsuit against the Trump administration over his deportation.
AP reports Abrego Garcia was kicked and hit so often after arrival that by the following day, he had visible bruises and lumps all over his body. He said he and 20 others were forced to kneel all night long and guards hit anyone who fell.
“The filing states prison staff then forced Abrego Garcia to strip and change into a uniform, kicked him to make him hurry up, shaved his head and marched him to a cell while hitting him with batons — leaving him with “visible bruises and lumps all over his body. Abrego Garcia says he was kept in a crowded, windowless cell with metal bunks and lights that remained on for 24 hours a day. In one case, Abrego Garcia and his cellmates were allegedly forced to kneel for nine hours, and were struck if they fell down.
CBS. There are few first-hand accounts of treatment there because El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, has vowed that its prisoners will never be released.
The new lawsuit was filed Wednesday, 7/2/25, by Abrego’s wife, Jennifer Sura, Abrego Garcia and their minor child against Noem, Bondi, Rubio et al.
Re: lawsuit the administration said, “Asked about the court filing, a spokeswoman for the Department of Homeland Security accused the media of “falling all over themselves to defend Kilmar Abrego Garcia.“The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart, yet they continue to peddle his sob story,” the spokeswoman, Tricia McLaughlin, said.
Per Politico, The administration for months resisted a judge’s command to bring Abrego back to the United States. But last month, federal prosecutors secured an indictment against him in Tennessee for human smuggling. At that point, the administration arranged for him to be released from Salvadoran custody and returned to the U.S. to face those charges.
The new court filing also seeks to undercut the Trump administration’s claims about Abrego Garcia, including the assertion that he is an MS-13 gang member. President Donald Trump has repeatedly made such a claim, even falsely insisting in a TV interview that Abrego has “MS-13” tattooed on the knuckles of his left hand.
)
