New legal filing details graphic ‘torture and abuse' of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador prison
His attorneys say the 29-year-old Salvadoran immigrant was subject to 'severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture' at the facility, where lawyers for President Donald Trump's administration have admitted he was mistakenly sent in March before a weeks-long legal battle to keep him imprisoned there.
Abrego Garcia was abruptly returned to the U.S. to face a federal criminal indictment accusing him of smuggling undocumented migrants across the country, allegations that were only raised after he was removed. He has pleaded not guilty.
The new legal filing follows ongoing debates among attorneys, judges and the Department of Justice over whether Abrego Garcia should remain in jail before trial as lawyers for the government threaten to deport him as soon as he is released from custody.
When he arrived in El Salvador on March 25, still in chains, two officials grabbed his arms and pushed him down the stairs from the airplane, according to the new complaint.
He was 'forcibly seated' on a bus and placed in a second set of chains and handcuffs, then 'repeatedly struck by officers when he attempted to raise his head,' the filing states.
Upon arrival at the Terrorism Confinement Center, officials told Abrego Garcia and other detainees, 'Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn't leave.'
He was then 'forced to strip, issued prison clothing, and subjected to physical abuse including being kicked in the legs with boots and struck on his head and arms to make him change clothes faster,' according to the filing.
Prison workers shaved his head and 'frog-marched' him into a cell, striking him 'with wooden batons along the way,' lawyers wrote. By the following day, 'Abrego Garcia had visible bruises and lumps all over his body,' they said.
He shared a cell with 20 other Salvadorans, who were 'forced to kneel' from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., 'with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion,' according to the complaint.
'During this time, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia was denied bathroom access and soiled himself,' the filing states. '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,' it claims.
After one week at the facility, the prison director and other officials separated 12 Salvadoran men, with what they said were gang-related tattoos, from a group of 21 detainees. Abrego Garcia remained with eight others 'who, like him, upon information and belief had no gang affiliations or tattoos.'
It was at this time that prison officials 'explicitly acknowledged' that Abrego Garcia's tattoos were not gang-related and told him 'your tattoos are fine,' according to the complaint.
Prison officials repeatedly threatened to move him to cells where gang members would 'tear' him apart, lawyers wrote.
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,' the filing states. 'Screams from nearby cells would similarly ring out throughout the night without any response from prison guards on personnel.'
After three weeks inside the prison, and after losing 31 pounds, Abrego Garcia and four other detainees were transferred to another part of the facility, 'where they were photographed with mattresses and better food — photos that appeared to be staged to document improved conditions,' according to the complaint.
Nearly one month after he was deported, Abrego Garcia was transferred to a prison that explicitly did not house known gang members.
At Centro Industrial, 'Abrego Garcia was frequently hidden from visitors, being told to remain in a separate room whenever outside visitors came to the facility,' according to the complaint.
He was denied communication with his family and access to legal counsel throughout his detention, until he met with Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen on April 17.
Abrego Garcia fled El Salvador when he was 16 years old and illegally entered the U.S. He was living and working in Maryland with his wife and child, both American citizens, and two children from a previous marriage.
Federal judges and a unanimous Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to 'facilitate' his return after government lawyers admitted in court documents that he was removed from the country due to a procedural error. A 2019 order from an immigration judge had blocked his removal to El Salvador over humanitarian concerns.
The government spent weeks battling court orders while officials publicly said he would never step foot in the U.S.
After spending three months inside those El Salvador jails, Abrego Garcia was returned to in June following a federal grand jury indictment accusing him of illegally transporting immigrants across the country.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
24 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Your kid is getting a ‘Trump account.' Should you put your money in it?
Republicans' 'big, beautiful bill' includes a gift to millions of families: $1,000 in an investment account for every eligible newborn. The new savings vehicles, akin to Individual Retirement Accounts, are designated for children who are U.S. citizens born from 2025 through 2028. In addition to the one-time government contribution, parents and others can chip in as much as $5,000 a year to the accounts, which beneficiaries can access at 18, with some constraints. Subscribe to The Post Most newsletter for the most important and interesting stories from The Washington Post. The seed money is a boon for recipients and will grow tax-deferred. Financial planners say parents and guardians might do better putting their money into existing investment vehicles such as a 529 plan, a savings plan designed to cover college expenses. But 529s are limited to education, while backers say the new accounts can help their recipients beyond college. Republican lawmakers call the accounts 'Trump accounts,' though the Senate's plan to officially name them after the president did not make it to the final version of the legislation, which was signed Friday. They deliver on an idea that both Democrats and Republicans have floated for years: to invest money for all children at birth. Withdrawals from a 529 are not subject to state or federal taxes as long as the funds go toward qualified education expenses - a feature the new investment accounts don't share. And in the new accounts, parents' deposits don't qualify for a tax deduction, notes Greg Leiserson, a senior fellow at the Tax Law Center at New York University. 'You have this very slight or minimal-to-nonexistent tax benefit,' he said. 'What is the point here?' Financial adviser Amy Spalding of Chapel Hill, North Carolina, said she will continue to steer her clients to 529s. 'It's better from a tax standpoint,' Spalding said. 'And there are more investment options. And then there's a higher contribution limit.' (For 2025, a single person can deposit as much as $19,000 a year into a beneficiary's 529, while married couples can contribute as much $38,000.) Jeremiah Barlow, a financial planner in Santa Barbara, California, said the new accounts could benefit a family that has hit the maximum on their child's 529 and wants to save more, or who like the idea of setting up a fund for their child's first home or as an economic safety net. 'It would likely appeal to our families who want more flexibility for more general-purpose savings for their child's future,' Barlow said. 'You shouldn't rush to just use it because it's out there.' Leiserson cautioned that account holders should understand the tax implications, noting that withdrawals will be taxed at typical income rates, not at the capital gains rate of a taxable brokerage account. 'For most people, this is going to be worse than what they could do in a taxable account,' he said. Though parents don't get a tax deduction when they contribute to a new account, employers can claim a tax break for contributions on behalf of their workers' children or their teenage employees. Nonprofits also can contribute to they accounts. The law requires the new investment accounts to track a U.S. stock index, which means account holders have fewer options than they would in a brokerage account or a 529 plan, which generally offer a range of investment options with varying levels of risk, including stocks, bonds and mutual funds. Leiserson noted that all-stock portfolios come with their own risks, because they're tethered to market conditions. 'If you're saying, 'Okay, I'm going to start school in the fall' - if the market falls over the summer, the planning you were doing about how you were going to pay for college is totally messed up, because the money you thought would be there, isn't." The White House said the accounts 'will afford a generation of children the chance to experience the miracle of compounded growth and set them on a course for prosperity from the very beginning.' While some experts appreciate the premise of the accounts, they also see flaws in the design, such as the requirement that parents opt-in to the account on their tax return, which means people who don't know this might miss out. In addition, the law includes a penalty of at least $500 if a parent mistakenly claims an account, which could scare off some parents. During the grinding process of crafting the massive tax and spending legislation, the accounts changed both superficially - they were renamed from MAGA accounts to Trump accounts to a yet-to-be-determined name - and in substance. Legislators dropped plans to give account withdrawals favorable tax treatment similar to a brokerage account. Account withdrawals will be taxed at ordinary income tax rates, not capital gains rates. Congress also discarded rules that would have prescribed how beneficiaries could spend the money - on college at 18, on starting a business at 25, on buying a house at 30. Instead, account holders cannot touch the funds until they turn 18. After that, the rules are the same as those of an individual retirement account - withdrawals are taxed like income, plus an additional 10 percent tax penalty on any withdrawals before age 59½ except for certain qualified uses. Those uses include paying for college, supporting themselves if they become disabled, or recovering from domestic abuse or a natural disaster. Beneficiaries also can withdraw as much as $10,000 to buy their first home, and up to $5,000 when they have a new baby themselves. Even one of the Trump accounts' biggest proponents in Congress, Rep. Blake Moore (R-Utah), said in an interview that for many parents, the new account design offers more benefits for retirement than for college expenses. 'I would argue that the tax implications of a 529 are far more favorable,' he said, but noted that most families don't have the disposable income to invest in a 529, and the new accounts' $1,000 from the government can benefit people at all income levels. If the account saw a 6 percent rate of return for 18 years, it would be worth $2,854; if the stock market does well, it could be worth even more. 'The most beneficial thing in my opinion about these is that … you're investing from birth into an IRA,' Moore said. 'Most people start investing in an IRA at 30 …. We're talking at birth or at 30. The benefits of investing early into that IRA are significant.' Moore has four sons, and while none will qualify for the government's $1,000 seed money contribution for newborns, the law allows him to open a Trump account as a parent. He says he'll be putting money in it: 'I want my kids having a Trump account so they can take it out when they're 50 or 60 years old.' - - - Jacob Bogage contributed to this report. Related Content Arthur Ashe's knack for reinvention led him to history at Wimbledon Newlywed detained by ICE freed after 141 days and two deportation attempts The Met opens a dazzling wing of non-European art Sign in to access your portfolio
CBS News
27 minutes ago
- CBS News
Teenager killed in early morning shooting in Middle Hill neighborhood
One person was killed in an early morning shooting in Pittsburgh's Middle Hill neighborhood. According to Pittsburgh Public Safety, around 1 a.m. on Sunday morning, officers were called to the 300 block of Addison Street after a ShotSpotter alert. While canvassing the area, officers found a 16-year-old boy with multiple gunshot wounds to his head, chest, and arm. Officers attempted chest compressions until medics arrived on the scene. Once medics arrived, they pronounced the boy dead. Pittsburgh Police's Violent Crime Unit is now investigating the shooting.
Fox News
28 minutes ago
- Fox News
'Diddy's' Legal Troubles Not Over
A former escort is launching a lawsuit against disgraced music mogul Sean 'Diddy' Combs, who was recently acquitted of rackateering and sex trafficking charges, an adult film star was found dead and one actor is in hot water for actions on social media. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
