Kilmar Abrego García's lawyers describe ‘severe beatings' in El Salvador prison

Washington Post

8 hours ago

In a rare account of the notorious prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration deported 261 Venezuelan and Salvadoran migrants in March, Kilmar Abrego García's lawyers said in a court filing Wednesday that he and the others were severely beaten and forced to kneel for nine straight hours upon their arrival.
The world saw some of that arrival in a tightly edited video posted on social media by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, which began with drone footage of three planes on the tarmac, surrounded by rows of soldiers and police in riot gear, and went on to show the migrants emerging one by one, heads pushed down in a frog march, wrists and ankles shackled.
But Wednesday's court filing, in the civil case brought by Abrego and his family against Trump administration officials in Maryland's U.S. District Court, for the first time contains his account of what happened in the hours and days that followed.
Abrego was kicked in the legs and struck with wooden batons inside El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, known as CECOT, lawyers said in the filing. They said he was held in a crowded, windowless cell that was brightly lit around-the-clock while guards, who had determined that he wasn't a hardened gang member, threatened to put him in with real gang members who would 'tear' him apart, the filing said.
'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,' the court filing says.
White House and Justice Department spokespeople did not immediately respond to requests for comment Wednesday. Damian Merlo, a lobbyist for Bukele in the United States who speaks for the Salvadoran president's administration, disputed the filing's assertions. 'None of those accusations are substantiated by facts or truth. … Amazing they make such claims,' Merlo said in a text message.
Abrego, who entered the U.S. illegally as a teenager after fleeing gang members in El Salvador, is now being held in a Tennessee prison after being returned from El Salvador early last month to face federal human smuggling charges, part of the winding legal drama triggered by his mistaken deportation that has highlighted the Trump administration's aggressive campaign to deport millions of people who arrived to the country without authorization.
Before his legal battle began, Abrego's name was the first called to disembark the plane in El Salvador after the Trump administration sent him there in violation of a 2019 immigration judge's order barring his deportation to that country, the filing by Abrego's legal team says.
As he exited the plane that arrived from Texas, bound by chains, two men in dark uniforms grabbed him and shoved him downward along the stairs, the court filing says. The detainees exited under bright lights as cameras filmed their arrival. Abrego was pushed toward a bus and into a seat, then fitted with a second set of chains and handcuffs.
'He was repeatedly struck by officers when he attempted to raise his head,' according to the filing's account.
After the bus ride, they arrived at the prison that was built to hold El Salvador's worst gang members, which human rights groups have said is one of the most opaque in the world. They were soon greeted by a prison official who told them: 'Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn't leave,' according to the filing.
The Trump administration paid Bukele's government approximately $6 million for detaining alleged gang members there, White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in March.
The arrangement may apply only to the Venezuelan migrants taken there. Justice Department lawyers have since said Abrego and the other Salvadorans were not part of that agreement.
At the prison, Abrego was forced to strip, issued prison clothing and then kicked in the legs with boots and hit in the head and arms to spur him to change faster, the filing says. 'His head was shaved with a zero razor, and he was frog-marched to cell 15, being struck with wooden batons along the way. By the following day, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia had visible bruises and lumps all over his body.'
Once in Cell 15, Abrego and 20 other Salvadorans were forced to kneel from about 9 p.m. to about 6 a.m., 'with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion,' the filing says. 'During this time, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself. The detainees were confined to metal bunks with no mattresses in an overcrowded cell with no windows, bright lights that remained on 24 hours a day, and minimal access to sanitation.'
After about a week, the filings says, CECOT officials separated Abrego and the other Salvadorans. Twelve had gang-related tattoos and were moved to another cell. Abrego, whose lawyers have denied he is a member of any gang, remained with eight others who, like him, had no gang tattoos or affiliations, the filing says.
'As reflected by his segregation, the Salvadoran authorities recognized that Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was not affiliated with any gang and, at around this time, prison officials explicitly acknowledged that Plaintiff Abrego Garcia's tattoos were not gang-related, telling him 'your tattoos are fine.''
In the days to come, prison officials repeatedly told Abrego that they would transfer him to cells containing real gang members who would cause him severe harm, the filing says. 'Indeed, Plaintiff Abrego 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. Screams from nearby cells would similarly ring out throughout the night without any response from prison guards or personnel.'
According to the filing, Abrego's physical condition deteriorated significantly, and he dropped from 215 to 184 pounds.
On April 9, nearly a month after arriving, Abrego and four others were transferred to a different part of CECOT, where they were photographed with mattresses and better food — 'photos that appeared to be staged to document improved conditions,' the filing says. The next day, Abrego alone was transferred to the Santa Ana penitentiary center, the filing says.
The Santa Ana facility is designated for inmates who are not gang members. A week after Abrego's arrival there, the Bukele administration allowed a visit from Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Maryland). In a news conference the next day, Van Hollen said that Bukele's staff had placed glasses at the table they sat at, and had made the glass in front of Abrego less full so it appeared as if he had drunk from it. Bukele shared photos of the meeting on social media and mocked the senator's visit, telling followers that Van Hollen and Abrego were drinking margaritas in the 'tropical paradise of El Salvador.'
Merlo, the Bukele administration lobbyist, echoed the Salvadoran president's sarcastic tone on Wednesday.
'I'd say he also had margaritas in a 5 star hotel with a U.S. Senator,' he said in a text message. Merlo also said that Abrego had 'seemed in good spirits' and 'gained 20 pounds with 'inadequate nutrition' in prison, didn't have any bruises, and had his own cell, with TV, and one fast food meal per day, also plenty of sun and activities.'
Noah Bullock, executive director of the leading human rights group Cristosal, said there have been interviews with people held in CECOT, but Abrego is the first person who has been freed and given his testimony about the conditions inside.
Last month, Abrego was returned to the United States to face the charges of human smuggling, which are related to a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee during which Highway Patrol troopers suspected him of transporting undocumented immigrants for money.
After a detention hearing in that case in Tennessee last month, U.S. Magistrate Judge Barbara D. Holmes delivered what amounted to a rebuke of the Trump administration's assertions that he is a dangerous criminal by ruling he must be released pending trial.
Holmes was left unconvinced by Justice Department allegations that he has gang ties. 'The government's evidence that Abrego is a member of MS-13 consists of general statements, all double hearsay, from two cooperating witnesses,' Holmes wrote.
Federal officials have said that Abrego will be transferred to immigration custody pending trial, and that at some point they will deport him back to El Salvador or to some other country.
Among the measures sought by Abrego's lawyers is a court order preventing his removal again from the U.S. without written notice of such plans and a reasonable period of time for him to file an application for relief under, among other legalities, the Convention Against Torture.
Samantha Schmidt contributed to this report.