Kilmar Abrego Garcia — the man whose mistaken deportation by the Trump administration has fueled a monthslong legal saga — alleged Wednesday that he faced “psychological torture” and “severe beatings” after he was sent to a supermax prison in El Salvador earlier this year.
The new allegations emerged in a legal filing by attorneys for Abrego Garcia in Maryland federal court, seeking to amend his lawsuit against the Trump administration over his deportation. Abrego Garcia was flown back to the United States in early June — months after a Maryland judge ordered his return — and promptly charged with human smuggling in Tennessee, but his attorneys say they’re concerned he could be deported again.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have previously described his more than three-week stint at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, as “torture.”
But Wednesday’s court filing offers new allegations of his “severe mistreatment,” which Abrego Garcia says included “severe beatings, severe sleep deprivation, inadequate nutrition, and psychological torture.” He says he lost 31 pounds during his time in prison.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, was part of a group of more than 250 Venezuelan and Salvadoran men who were deported from the U.S. to El Salvador and held in CECOT in mid-March. Shortly after his arrival at the Salvadoran mega-prison, an official there said, “Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn’t leave,” the court filing alleges.
The filing states prison staff then forced Abrego Garcia to strip and change into a uniform, kicked him to make him hurry up, shaved his head and marched him to a cell while hitting him with batons — leaving him with “visible bruises and lumps all over his body.”
Abrego Garcia says he was kept in a crowded, windowless cell with metal bunks and lights that remained on for 24 hours a day. In one case, Abrego Garcia and his cellmates were allegedly forced to kneel for nine hours, and were struck if they fell down.
After more than three weeks, Abrego Garcia says he was transferred to a different area and was “photographed with mattresses and better food” in what he believed to be staged images.
Abrego Garcia was eventually transferred to a different prison in early April, but he says he was still denied contact with his attorneys or family members.
Early on during his time at CECOT, Abrego Garcia says prison staff sorted a group of inmates based on whether they had gang tattoos but acknowledged that wasn’t the case for him, saying, “Your tattoos are fine.” The Trump administration has alleged in the past that Abrego Garcia has tattoos linking him to the gang MS-13, which his lawyers have strongly denied.
Separately, Wednesday’s court filing says U.S. immigration agents falsely told Abrego Garcia after his March arrest that he would be allowed to see a judge. Prior to his removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia said he “repeatedly requested judicial review,” but officials responded by “deliberately misleading” him, according to the court filing.
Assistant Secretary of Homeland Security Tricia McLaughlin said in a statement: “This illegal alien is an MS-13 gang member, alleged human trafficker, and a domestic abuser. The media’s sympathetic narrative about this criminal illegal gang member has completely fallen apart, yet they continue to peddle his sob story. We hear far too much about gang members and criminals’ false sob stories and not enough about their victims.”
Abrego Garcia has denied membership in MS-13. His wife sought and received a temporary protective order in 2021 after alleging domestic abuse, but the case was dismissed after she didn’t appear at a hearing. She said earlier this year she “acted out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar,” and decided not to move forward with the process because they “were able to work through this situation privately as a family.”
CBS News has reached out to the White House for comment.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers ask for his return to Maryland
Wednesday’s amended lawsuit asks U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis to declare the Trump administration’s actions unconstitutional and order Abrego Garcia’s immediate return to Maryland. He is currently being held in pretrial detention in Tennessee.
Xinis has not ruled on Agrego Garcia’s lawyers’ request to file the amended lawsuit, which would update an earlier suit that led Xinis and the Supreme Court to order the government to “facilitate” his return to the U.S. That original lawsuit — filed in March — hinged partly on a 2019 court order barring Abrego Garcia from being deported to El Salvador. The government said he was sent there anyway due to an “administrative error.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration asked Xinis last month to dismiss Abrego Garcia’s lawsuit as moot, arguing he has already received the relief he requested because the government took “extraordinary steps” to return him to the U.S. The administration says Abrego Garcia — who entered the U.S. illegally in 2011 — has “no right to remain in the United States.”
A hearing in Xinis’ courtroom is scheduled for Monday.
Abrego Garcia is separately facing criminal smuggling charges in Tennessee, with federal prosecutors alleging he worked to transport undocumented migrants from Texas to other parts of the U.S. for years. Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty.
A judge in Nashville ordered Abrego Garcia to be released ahead of trial last month, but his attorneys asked that he remain in custody, citing fears the Trump administration could detain and deport him on immigration grounds as soon as he leaves jail.
A Justice Department lawyer said in Xinis’ courtroom last week that once Abrego Garcia is released from detention, Immigration and Customs Enforcement intends to begin removal proceedings to send him to an unspecified “third country” other than El Salvador. The Justice Department maintains there are “no imminent plans” to deport him.
A Tennessee magistrate judge ruled Monday that Abrego Garcia will stay in custody until at least mid-July.
