The vast prison where Kilmer Abrego Garcia is last known is in contrast to the Super Max Mega Proson, where he was first deported.
Inmates at Santa Ana’s Centro Industrial Prison move more or less freely, wearing yellow T-shirts, rather than gang members in brightly lit, crowded cells. They spend a lot of time outdoors growing dairy cows and growing vegetables. Others work in factories and make uniforms for the military and desks of public schools.
The government calls these “trusted prisoners.” They have shown good behavior and are in the last year of their writing. And the prisons decisively rule out those accused of belonging to the gang.
Imate will feed a baby cow at the Centro Industrial Prison in Santa Anael Salvador in April 2025. (NBC News)
“We’re just going to house a common population,” said prison director and watchdog Samuel Diaz. “There are no gang members working here.”
NBC News gained access to Santa Ana’s Centro Industrial on Monday on a carefully choreographed tour. Authorities did not provide access to Abrego Garcia and did not answer questions about his location, conditions of detention, or other aspects of his case. However, they facilitated interviews with other inmates. Other inmates described the prison situation as “perfect” and “excellent.”
The Trump administration has been ordered by the Supreme Court to “promote” the return of Garcia, Maryland, which the Justice Department has found should not be sent to a prison in El Salvador, his hometown, as the 2019 order bans such lawsuits.
Details of Abrego Garcia’s transfer for Salvador and American human rights advocates – Cecot, a supermax prison designed specifically for gang members, contradicts the central claims made by both governments, from the low-security prison where gang members are excluded. (His wife and lawyers have denied these claims.)
The inmate is painting at the Centro Industrial Prison in Santa Ana, El Salvador. (NBC News)
Abrego Garcia’s exact location and status remains unknown. Since his deportation, Abrego Garcia has not been permitted to contact his family or attorneys. In a meeting with Senator Chris Van Hollen on April 17 (the only time he has been seen since deportation), Abrego Garcia said he had been moved from CECOT to another facility. Documents filed in federal court by the U.S. Department of Justice on April 20 confirmed that the facility is Santa Ana’s Centro Industry. There have been no updates since.
From that point of view, Abrego Garcia’s transfer from CECOT is a concern, said Gabriella Santos, director of the Institute of Human Rights at Central American University in San Salvador.
“Why did he move?” Santos said. “And where are all the other immigrants that you brought here? Are they at CECOT or are they in different prisons in El Salvador?”
Inmates use sewing machines at Centro Industrial Prison in Santa Ana, El Salvador in April 2025 (NBC News)
Santos said there is no clear legal basis for the agreement with Trump that President Salvador Naive Buquere would receive and imprison the exile from the United States.
“From a legal perspective, there is no reason [Abrego Garcia] Santos said. And she added that there is no viable means to challenge policy, as Bukel has integrated power over all sectors of the government.
“There is no rule of law here in El Salvador. There is no respect for the principle of legality,” she said.
Just like Abrego Garcia and others, all prisoners in the Salvadora River prison system are separated from contact with lawyers, loved ones and others, just as the Trump administration deported directly to CECOT. This policy is the result of the “state of exception” that Bukkel declared in 2022 after a particularly cruel wave of gang violence, and he suspended many constitutional protections to immediately jail tens of thousands without justice.
About 85,000 people have been jailed in exceptional conditions, according to human rights groups in Salvadra. Many have been exposed to large trials of more than 100 defendants who have no access to lawyers. Advocates documented the stories of many of those with no demonstrated ties to gangs who were effectively relied on appeal and were incarcerated indefinitely.
Additionally, rights groups in El Salvador and abroad have harshly criticised the situation in prisons across the country, claiming systemic torture, malnutrition and other abuse. The legal Ngo Socorro Jurídico Humaniterio has recorded 370 deaths in Salvador prisons since the exception condition was declared.
Woodworking created by inmates at the Centro Industrial Prison in Santa Ana, El Salvador in April 2025 (NBC News)
“For three years, we lost all our human rights and constitutional guarantees in El Salvador,” said Ingrid Escobar, the organization’s lawyer.
Bukere admits that some innocent people have been arrested under exceptional conditions.
“Obviously, our tactics are not perfect. If we had no intention of hurting everyone being innocent, some innocent people were arrested. “And we are releasing them – we have released 8,000 people, and we are releasing 100% of innocent people.”
The Bukere regime says that embracing prisoners is a necessary measure to break the control that gangs had against prisons in El Salvador, and is a necessary measure that involves regularly organizing murder, terror and other criminal acts from within.
Public safety has improved dramatically in El Salvador since the exceptional situation. Many interviewed on the streets of San Salvador said they could move around town freely and start their business again without fear of harassment, fears or violence from gangs. These improvements have made Bukere one of the most popular heads of state in the world.
But human rights advocates say improvements have come at a great cost to Salvadra’s democracy – and that Bukere’s popularity is not justification for authoritarianism.
“Popularity isn’t a blank check to do anything he wants,” Santos said. “History has taught me that just because someone is popular doesn’t mean he’s doing the right thing.”
This story first appeared on nbcnews.com. More from NBC News:
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