DULLES, VA – A Maryland father wrongly deported to El Salvador and held in a notoriously violent prison told a U.S. senator that he was traumatized by the experience.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia told Sen. Chris Van Hollen that he was moved nine days ago from El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, to another facility with better conditions.
But Abrego Garcia said he had been traumatized by his time in CECOT and that he had been taunted by other prisoners. While the new facility he is in has better conditions, his meeting with Van Hollen on Thursday was his first contact with the outside world.
“He said he said he felt very sad about being in a prison because he had not committed any crimes,” Van Hollen said.
Abrego Garcia’s meeting with Van Hollen marked the first time he has been seen publicly since he was detained in March by U.S. immigration officials near his home in Beltsville, Maryland, about a half hour outside of Washington.
His family, friends and attorneys had raised questions about his safety and well-being. A federal judge in the case had asked the Justice Department to produce daily reports on his location and status. The Justice Department had said as recently as April 12 that he was still at CECOT. But according to Abrego Garcia’s account he had already been moved to the facility in Santa Ana, El Salvador.
Since his deportation to San Salvador last month, questions about his safety and wellbeing had been raised by his family and attorneys in court. The judge on the case asked the Justice Department to produce daily reports on his location and status.
This is the first indication that Abrego Garcia had been moved from the contracted prison to another facility — despite the Justice Department saying that he was still at CECOT on April 12.
Van Hollen, who traveled to El Salvador this week to demand Abrego Garcia’s release, was granted a meeting with him Thursday evening after twice being denied the opportunity to visit with him.
Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia told him he missed his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and his family, a message he relayed to the wife in a call after the meeting.
Abrego Garcia said, after his arrest, he was first taken to Baltimore, where he asked to make a phone call to his loved ones, but was denied, Van Hollen said.
He was then taken to Texas, where he was “handcuffed, shackled” and put on a plane with others who did not know where they were going.Once at CECOT, he was placed into a cell with around 25 other people. The experience, including other people taunting him, “traumatized” him, Van Hollen said.“He was traumatized by being at CECOT and fearful of many of the prisoners in other cell blocks who called out to him and taunted him in various ways,” Van Hollen said.Abrego Garcia was moved to another detention center in Santa Ana, but he still had no access to news or communication. His conversation with Van Hollen was his first conversation he had since his imprisonment in El Salvador, the senator said.
Abrego Garcia, 29, a sheet metal worker and father of three, was detained in March by U.S. immigration officials near his home in Beltsville, Maryland, and deported to El Salvador, even though an immigration judge had ordered that he could not be returned to the Central American country.
Government attorneys acknowledged in court documents that he was deported by mistake but say they have no authority to free him because he is imprisoned in a foreign country.
U.S. officials contend Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 criminal gang, recently deemed a foreign terrorist organization. But their evidence relies on a confidential informant and clothing Garcia was wearing in 2019 police encounter.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland, who is handling the case, has questioned the strength of the government’s evidence, writing that the U.S. has claimed “without any evidence” that he is a member of MS-13.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Abrego Garcia tells Van Hollen that prison in El Salvador traumatizing
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