A Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador and detained in one of that country’s most notorious prisons was subjected to “severe beatings” and “torture”, new court documents allege.
Lawyers for Kilmar Ábrego García, 29, alleged that assaults from guards within a day of his arrival at the CECOT prison left him with visible injuries.
The Trump administration had previously alleged Mr Ábrego García was a member of the Salvadorian gang, MS-13, which his lawyers and family have strongly denied.
While officials initially said Mr Ábrego García could never return to the US, in June he was extradited to Tennessee to face human trafficking charges – to which he has pleaded not guilty.
According to new court documents filed on Wednesday as part of a lawsuit his wife brought against the Trump administration, Mr Ábrego García and 20 other detainees were repeatedly beaten when they arrived at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Centre, or Cecot.
Once there, according to the documents, Mr Ábrego García and 20 other deported inmates “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”.
Mr Ábrego García has also alleged that he and the other prisoners were “forced to kneel” from 9 PM to 6 AM, “with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion”.
At one point, guards allegedly threatened to confine him with gang members who would “tear” him apart.
His mistreatment led to him losing 30lbs (14kg) within the first two weeks of his incarceration in El Salvador, according to the complaint.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has previously said his country’s prisons are “clean, orderly, free from abuses, unsanitary conditions, beatings, or murders”.
During a visit to the White House earlier this year, he expressed support for the Trump administration’s deportation agenda.
The Trump administration has asked the federal judge in Maryland overseeing the case to dismiss the lawsuit, arguing that it was overtaken by events after Mr Ábrego García was returned to the US. The lawsuit was filed by Mr Ábrego García’s wife after his deportation.
Mr Ábrego García first entered the US illegally in 2011 and was granted protection from deportation by an immigration judge in 2019 because it was determined he might face danger from gangs if returned to his native El Salvador.
But in March 2025 the Maryland resident was deported and initially held in El Salvador’s Cecot mega-prison, in what Trump administration officials later admitted was a mistake. A judge ordered the government to “facilitate” his return, but White House officials initially refused to bring him back.
Following his return to face charges in June, Attorney General Pam Bondi said that “this is what American justice looks like”.
He has denied any wrongdoing, and his attorneys have called the trafficking charges “preposterous”.
In late June, a federal judge in Tennessee ruled that Mr Ábrego García is eligible for release, but he has remained in jail over fears from his own legal team that he could be swiftly deported again if he leaves the facility.
