Court Filing Alleges Torture of Abrego García After Mistaken US Deportation

Newly unsealed court papers filed Wednesday in U.S. District Court in Maryland describe a harrowing account of Kilmar Abrego García’s three-month detention in El Salvador after the Trump administration mistakenly deported him in March despite a 2019 order barring his removal. Lawyers for the 29-year-old Maryland resident say he was taken to the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), where guards subjected him to severe beatings, sleep deprivation and psychological abuse.

According to the filing, Abrego García and about 20 other detainees were forced to kneel from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., struck whenever they faltered, denied bathroom access and housed in a brightly lit, windowless cell with no mattresses. He was allegedly kicked, beaten with wooden batons, threatened with placement among violent gang members and lost more than 30 pounds during his first two weeks in custody.

The deportation on 15 March 2025, which the government later called an administrative error, turned Abrego García into a focal point of the administration’s immigration crackdown. Under mounting judicial pressure, U.S. officials returned him on 6 June, but immediately jailed him in Tennessee on human-smuggling charges stemming from a 2022 traffic stop. He has pleaded not guilty; a magistrate judge ruled him eligible for release, though he remains in custody while his attorneys seek to prevent another removal.

The civil suit, brought by Abrego García’s wife, seeks damages and a court order barring future deportation. The Justice Department argues the case is moot because he is back in the United States. Homeland Security officials continue to label him an MS-13 member—an assertion his lawyers reject—while El Salvador’s government denies abuses at CECOT. The Maryland judge has not indicated when she will rule on either the dismissal request or the plaintiff’s bid for protections against further deportation.