Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s New Prison Location Revealed by Trump Admin

In a new court filing, the Trump administration confirmed that deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia was moved into the Centro Industrial Penitentiary facility in Santa Ana, El Salvador, after first being sent to the country’s notorious CECOT prison.

The new filing from the State Department says, “The Salvadoran government responded on April 21 that Mr. Abrego García is being held at the Centro Industrial penitentiary facility in Santa Ana, ‘in good conditions and in an excellent state of health.'”

Context

Abrego Garcia was arrested in 2019 and accused of being a member of the MS-13 gang, which the Trump administration has designated a foreign terrorist organization. Abrego Garcia denied being a member of the gang but two judges, in separate rulings, concluded that he was an MS-13 member, based on confidential information provided to the court. Nonetheless he was shielded from deportation to his homeland because he said that he would be targeted by MS-13’s gangland rivals.

Abrego Garcia was deported anyway to El Salvador after being arrested last month in what the Trump administration lawyers said was an “administrative error.” His family denies any ties to gangs and Abrego Garcia has no criminal record in the United States, although his wife accused him of domestic violence and obtained a restraining order against him. She now says they have been reconciled.

What to Know

Another court filing on Sunday, also by the State Department, said that Abrego Garcia’s has his own room with a bed and furniture, rather than a prison cell. Abrego Garcia was reportedly moved to the facility eight days before Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen visited him in El Salvador last week.

Federal Judge Paula Xinis has directed the Trump administration to submit daily updates on Abrego Garcia’s condition and whereabouts.

Upon his return to Washington on Friday, Van Hollen said that Abrego Garcia appeared “traumatized” by his experience at the country’s infamous CECOT prison and had since been relocated.

“He said he was not afraid of the other…