A man from Maryland who was wrongly expelled in Salvador and held in one of the most notorious prisons in this country was subject to “serious blows” and “torture”, according to new court documents.
The lawyers of Kilmar ábrego García, 29, alleged that the assaults of the guards had left him visible injuries in the day of his arrival at Cecot prison.
The Trump administration had previously allegedly alleged that Mr. Ábrego García was a member of the Salvadoral gang, MS-13, that his lawyers and his family firmly denied.
While officials initially declared that Mr. ábrego García could never return to the United States, in June, he was extradited to Tennessee to deal with accusations of human trafficking – which he pleaded not guilty.
According to new court documents filed on Wednesday as part of a trial that his wife brought against the Trump administration, Mr. Ábrego García and 20 other detainees were beaten on several occasions when they arrived at the El Salvador or Cecot Terrorism Center.
Once there, according to the documents, Mr. Ábrego García and 20 other expelled detainees “were confined to metal berths without mattresses in a overcrowded cell without windows, lively lights which remained 24 hours a day and minimal access to sanitation”.
Mr. ábrego García also alleged that he and the other prisoners had been “forced to kneel” from 9 pm to 6 am “, with guards hitting anyone who fell out of exhaustion”.
At one point, the guards would have threatened to limit it to gang members who “tear it away”.
His ill -treatment led him to lose 30 pounds (14 kg) in the first two weeks of his incarceration in Salvador, according to the complaint.
The Trump administration asked the Federal Judge of Maryland to supervise the case to reject the trial, arguing that it had been overtaken by events after Mr. Ábrego García was returned to the United States. The trial was filed by the wife of Mr. ábrego García after his expulsion.
Mr. ábrego García entered illegally in the United States in 2011 and obtained protection against expulsion by an immigration judge in 2019 because he was determined that he could face a danger of gangs if he had returned to his native Salvador.
But in March 2025, the Maryland resident was expelled and initially held in the mega-prison Cecot d’El Salvador, in what Trump administration officials later admitted was a mistake. A judge ordered the government to “facilitate” its return, but the managers of the White House initially refused to bring it back.
After his return to face in June, the prosecutor General Pam Bondi said that “it is what American justice is like”.
He denied any reprehensible act, and his lawyers qualified the traffic accusations as “absorbent”.
At the end of June, a federal judge of Tennessee judged that Mr. Ábrego García was eligible for the Liberation, but he stayed in prison to fear from his own legal team that he could quickly be expelled if he left the establishment.
