Denied toilet access, made to kneel overnight: US deportee says he was tortured in El Salvador prison

The White House has repeatedly claimed that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, the Salvadoran gang the US government has designated a foreign terrorist organisation. US President Donald Trump, speaking last month, declared that Abrego Garcia “will never live” in the United States again.

Yet multiple judges, including one on the Supreme Court, have ruled that he was deported in error and that the government is obliged to help “facilitate” his return to Maryland, where he had lived since 2012.

That court order came only after Abrego Garcia had already spent nearly three harrowing months inside El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, where he was sent immediately after his wrongful deportation.

“Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here doesn’t leave,” one official reportedly told him upon arrival, according to court documents filed by his lawyers.

Held in an overcrowded, windowless cell with bright lights on 24 hours a day, Abrego Garcia says he was forced to sleep on a metal bunk with no mattress and was denied access to a bathroom, eventually soiling himself. He said he lost 14 kg in two weeks.

In his testimony, he lists harrowing details. Upon arrival, he says he was kicked and hit repeatedly, leaving his body bruised and swollen. He and 20 others were made to kneel overnight, with guards striking anyone who collapsed, he claims. At times, he was told he would be transferred to cells with known gang members who would “tear” him apart.

He also said he heard screaming through the night. He saw prisoners assaulting each other in nearby cells. He was told by prison staff that his tattoos would mark him for death—until they later admitted they weren’t gang-related at all.

According to the new court filings, Salvadoran prison officials determined that Abrego Garcia was not affiliated with any gang.

The Trump administration initially brushed aside the deportation as an “administrative error.” But after weeks of legal pressure, it abruptly flew Abrego Garcia back to the US last month—not to release him, but to indict him.

He is now in federal custody in Nashville, Tennessee, facing charges of participating in a conspiracy to smuggle undocumented immigrants, allegedly as a member of MS-13. His lawyers argue the evidence is flimsy and that the government is backpedalling on its previous mistake by doubling down on criminal accusations.

Justice Department attorney Jonathan Guynn told a Maryland judge that the US intends to deport Abrego Garcia again, this time to an unnamed third country. There is no set timeline, but his attorneys say the threat is immediate and illegal. “This was not a mistake,” one of his lawyers told reporters. “It was a deliberate defiance of a court order.”

The Justice Department has not commented publicly on whether it will comply with the Supreme Court’s latest ruling or where it intends to send Abrego Garcia next.

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