Early last month, we reported that Salvadorian migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported to a detention center in El Salvador by the brazenly unapologetic Trump administration, had finally been returned to the U.S., only to face an indictment on federal smuggling charges that, according to Abrego Garcia’s attorney (and any objective observer), appears to be an attempt by the Justice Department to justify the White House’s actions.
Well, now, Abrego Garcia is speaking publicly about his experience in El Salvador’s mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, where he said he and other inmates were subjected to daily beatings, torture, terror and substandard living conditions, according to court documents filed Wednesday..
From the Associated Press:
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.
Abrego Garcia was living in Maryland when he was mistakenly deported and became a flashpoint in President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown. The new details of Abrego Garcia’s incarceration in El Salvador 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 court 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…
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