Infamous illegal alien and accused domestic abuser Kilmar Abrego Garcia is back in the news after his lawyers recently claimed he was "tortured" and "starved" during his detainment in El Salvador.
As RedState reported, Abrego Garcia is currently in jail after being returned to the United States and federally charged with human smuggling. Body cam footage from a 2022 traffic stop in Tennessee showed him driving a car full of illegal aliens while carrying a large amount of cash, suspected to have been his payment for transporting them into the interior. Since then, one of Abrego Garcia's alleged partners has flipped on him, signing a cooperation deal with the Department of Justice.
SEE: Pam Bondi Says Abrego Garcia 'Traded the Innocence of Minor Children for Profit'
Initially, Abrego Garcia sought to be released on bail, but after the Trump administration promised to deport him again if he hit the street, his team instead filed a motion to delay the decision on his detention. Claiming that he was tortured, beaten, and starved appears to be part of a strategy to secure his release while fending off deportation.
In a new court filing submitted to U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, Abrego Garcia's lawyers outlined a long list of abuses their client was subjected to at the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a notorious anti-terrorism prison in El Salvador, including sleep deprivation, psychological torture and severe beatings.
These abuses allegedly began the moment the migrants arrived at the prison in March. There, they were greeted by a prison guard who said, "Welcome to CECOT. Whoever enters here, doesn’t leave."
According to court documents, Abrego Garcia was immediately frog-marched to his cell by prison guards, who kicked him with boots and struck him with wooden batons along the way, leaving visible bumps and bruises across his body.
He and other detainees in the cell slept on metal mattresses, with minimal access to food and satiation. They were also forced to kneel for approximately nine hours, from 9 p.m. to 6 a.m., "with guards striking anyone who fell from exhaustion."
Abrego Garcia’s physical condition deteriorated quickly – within two weeks, his lawyers said, he lost roughly 31 pounds.
Look, CECOT isn't Disneyland. It's perfectly possible that Abrego Garcia wasn't treated with the greatest of care. Still, some of these claims seem highly exaggerated or even manufactured, given the evidence we have of his condition at the time this was supposedly happening. On April 17th, just one month after his deportation, Abrego Garcia ate lunch with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and appeared perfectly healthy. There were no signs of torture or any significant weight loss, much less 31 pounds. Abrego Garcia also made no mention of being mistreated during the sitdown, which you'd assume he'd do given Van Hollen was there to try to secure his release.
El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele pushed back hard on the allegations, releasing a video beginning on April 16th showing Abego Garcia appearing healthy and still overweight. It also shows him over several months receiving health checks, participating in a gardening program, and eating good meals. It ends with him being walked to the plane that brought him back to the United States. At that later date, he again appeared healthy and still overweight, showing no signs of abuse.
Apparently, anything a criminal claims is accepted as truth by the mainstream media and the crumbling Western judiciary.
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) July 3, 2025
But the man wasn’t tortured, nor did he lose weight. In fact, photos show he gained weight while in detention. There’s plenty of footage from different days,… pic.twitter.com/PzvLcCNzrK
Either Abrego Garcia heals and gains weight faster than any other human on earth, or his lawyers aren't telling the whole story here. You can decide which, but I think the solution is simple. If Abrego Garcia would like to avoid another deportation, he can simply remain in custody in Tennessee until his human smuggling trial.
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