Kilmar Abrego Garcia Describes Hellish El Salvador Prison

Kilmar Abrego Garcia said he suffered severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, and psychological torture in the notorious El Salvador prison the Trump administration had mistakenly deported him to in March, according to court documents filed Wednesday, per the AP. He said he 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 new details of Abrego Garcia's incarceration in El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) were added to a lawsuit against the Trump administration that Abrego Garcia's wife filed in Maryland federal court after he was deported. The Trump administration has asked a federal judge in Maryland to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it is now moot because the government returned him to the United States as ordered by the court.

In the new documents, Abrego Garcia said detainees at CECOT "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." He said prison officials told him repeatedly that they would transfer him to cells with people who were gang members who would "tear" him apart. Abrego Garcia said he saw others in nearby cells violently harm each other and heard screams from people throughout the night. His condition deteriorated and he lost more than 30 pounds in his first two weeks there, he said.

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Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat who visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador in April, said he was moved to a detention center with better conditions before the US government returned him to the US last month to face federal human smuggling charges in Tennessee. A federal judge has ruled Abrego Garcia is eligible for release, under certain conditions, but has kept him in jail at the request of his own attorneys over fears that he would be deported again upon release.