Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the 30-year-old man who was wrongfully deported from the United States to his native El Salvador during President Donald Trump’s immigration crackdown, has been transferred to a detention facility in central Pennsylvania.
Abrego Garcia was moved to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Phillipsburg, PA, on Friday morning, according to court documents filed the same day to his lawyers.
The long-running deportation saga of Abrego Garcia has become one of the most high-profile cases of Trump administration’s deportation efforts to date. The administarion has claimed that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang, an allegation that he denies and for which he was not charged.
An Immigration and Customs Enforcement official told Abrego Garcia’s lawyers that the transfer from Virginia’s Farmville Detention Center will “allow Mr. Abrego-Garcia’s legal team greater access to him,” the filing stated. In response, his attorneys said, “It is not yet clear whether that is true.”
Abrego Garcia filed a status report on Sept. 19, detailing how his detention at the Farmville Detention Center “placed substantial burdens on the defense’s ability to meet” with him, his counsel told the judge.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers have argued that travel to Moshannon is far more difficult for members of the defense team based in Nashville, and not easier for those in New York.
“Conditions at Moshannon are also deeply concerning,” his attorneys said, citing a detainee who died by hanging in August, reports of assaults, inadequate medical care and insufficient food.
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The administration returned Abrego Garcia to the U.S. in June, but only to face human smuggling charges. His lawyers have called the case preposterous and vindictive.
Abrego Garcia has pleaded not guilty.
