El Salvador is still imprisoning deportees from the U.S., even after Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case sparked a backlash. Some are disappearing, Kevin Sieff reports.⁠
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A year and a half ago, Abrego Garcia, a 31-year-old Salvadoran man, was deported to El Salvador and detained in a maximum-security mega-prison. Abrego Garcia’s deportation, which was in violation of legal orders, prompted a public backlash and a federal judge’s intervention; he was ultimately returned to the United States. But as public attention has shifted elsewhere, El Salvador has continued jailing deportees, many of whom have not been charged with any crime.⁠
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“One person with knowledge of the deportation flights in El Salvador told me that about four people from every flight of 120 passengers are jailed,” Sieff writes. “Some deportees said that even more people on their flights had been detained. The United States has roughly doubled its number of deportations to El Salvador in the first half of this year. From January to June, 9,829 deportees arrived on at least 83 flights, according to El Salvador’s migration ministry. The scale of the ongoing detention of deportees has not been previously reported.”⁠
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“The jailed deportees remain in Salvadoran detention, unable to speak with their attorney or family, and usually without being told which crimes they’re accused of committing,” Sieff reports. “I spoke with nine families whose relatives have been deported since as early as March 2025 and remain in detention.”⁠
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“The government won’t confirm for family members where people are detained or whether they are even still alive,” Sieff writes. “At least five deportees from the U.S. have died in custody, according to Cristosal, a Salvadoran human-rights organization. In three of those cases, the group said, the bodies showed signs of violence or torture.”⁠
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Read about the families of the imprisoned deportees who are trying to locate their loved ones at the link in our bio.⁠
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📸: @hahaitstinawatsup / The Atlantic. Sources: MARVIN RECINOS / AFP / Getty; Getty.