In a new lawsuit contesting his unlawful removal from the United States, attorneys for Kilmar Abrego Garcia have described the “severe mistreatment” and “torture” he endured during his month-long confinement inside an infamous jail in El Salvador.
The 29-year-old Salvadoran immigrant was allegedly subjected to “severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture” at the facility, according to his attorneys. Attorneys for President Donald Trump’s administration have acknowledged during a weeks-long legal battle that he was mistakenly sent there in March.
After being removed, Abrego Garcia was suddenly brought back to the United States to face a federal criminal prosecution that accused him of smuggling unauthorized migrants across the nation. He entered a not guilty plea.
As government lawyers threaten to deport Abrego Garcia as soon as he is released from custody, the latest court filing comes amid ongoing discussions among lawyers, judges, and the Department of Justice regarding whether he should remain in jail before trial.
According to the new lawsuit, two officials took hold of his arms and pulled him down the stairs from the aircraft when he arrived in El Salvador on March 25 while still in chains.
According to the complaint, he was “forcibly seated” on a bus, put in a second set of handcuffs and chains, and then “repeatedly struck by officers when he attempted to raise his head.” “Welcome to CECOT,” officials said to Abrego Garcia and other detainees as they arrived at the Terrorism Confinement Center. Whoever comes in here stays here.
The complaint claims that in order to push him to change clothes more quickly, he was then “made to strip, given prison clothes, and subjected to physical abuse including being kicked in the legs with boots and struck on his head and arms.”
Lawyers said that inmates “frog-marched” him into a cell after shaving his head and hitting him “with wooden batons along the way.” They claimed that by the next day, “Abrego Garcia had obvious lumps and bruises all over his body.”
🚨 JUST IN: KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA DETAILS THE TORTURE ENDURED IN EL-SALVADOR PRISON.
– Lost 31 pounds in two weeks
– Was forced to kneel for 9 hours straight
– Was beaten with boots and batons
– Had no mattress, no bathroom access, and no windows pic.twitter.com/I0WhuOp6G0— Maine (@TheMaineWonk) July 3, 2025
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. According to the petition, Plaintiff Abrego Garcia “soiled himself and was denied bathroom access during this time.” It says, “The detainees were kept in cramped cells with no windows, metal bunks without mattresses, bright lights that were on all day, and little access to sanitary facilities.”
Twelve Salvadoran men with what they claimed were gang-related tattoos were separated from a group of twenty-one inmates by the prison director and other officials after they had been there for a week. Eight additional people, “who, upon information and belief, had no gang affiliations or tattoos,” stayed with Abrego Garcia.
The complaint claims that at this point, prison officials “explicitly acknowledged” that Abrego Garcia’s tattoos had nothing to do with gangs and assured him that “your tattoos are fine.” Lawyers said that he was constantly threatened by prison officials with being transferred to cells where gang members would “tear” him apart.
🚨JUST IN🚨
Kilmar Abrego Garcia said he was brutally beaten, kept awake, and psychologically tortured in an El Salvador prison after being deported there by the Trump administration in March, according to court documents.
He claims he was kicked and hit so much that he had… pic.twitter.com/ZpxPuTd9jw
— Breanna Morello (@BreannaMorello) July 3, 2025
According to the complaint, Abrego Garcia “repeatedly witnessed inmates in adjacent cells who he believed to be gang members violently harm each other without any intervention from guards or personnel.” Throughout the night, cries from adjacent cells would likewise reverberate without any reaction from prison staff or guards.”Abrego Garcia was regularly concealed from visitors at Centro Industrial, being instructed to stay in a separate room whenever outside visitors came to the facility,” the complaint claims.
During his incarceration, he was not allowed to speak with his family or obtain legal representation until he spoke with Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland on April 17.
Abrego Garcia entered the United States illegally at the age of sixteen after fleeing El Salvador. He had two children from a previous marriage and lived and worked in Maryland with his wife and child, both of whom were citizens of the United States.
While officials declared in public that he would never set foot in the United States, the government fought court orders for weeks. Abrego Garcia was sent back to those El Salvadorian cells in June after spending three months there after being charged by a federal grand jury with unlawfully trafficking immigrants throughout the nation.
