Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father who was wrongfully deported from the United States to El Salvador earlier this year, has been moved from a Virginia detention center to a facility in Pennsylvania.
Court documents obtained by The New York Times and the Los Angeles Times reveal that Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) notified Abrego Garcia’s lawyers on Friday, Sept. 26, that he had been transferred to the Moshannon Valley Processing Center in Philipsburg, Pa., from the Farmville Detention Center in Virginia.
ICE stated the transfer would “allow Mr. Abrego-Garcia’s legal team greater access to him,” according to CBS News and WHYY. However, his attorneys have questioned this claim.
“Travel to Moshannon is far more difficult for the members of the defense team based in Nashville, and is not appreciably easier for the New York-based members of the defense team, compared to Farmville,” the filing notes.
Abrego Garcia’s legal team has also expressed concern over conditions at the Moshannon facility, citing reports of “assaults, inadequate medical care and insufficient food.”
In a statement to PEOPLE, Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), confirmed the transfer and labeled Abrego Garcia, 30, as an “MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, serial domestic abuser and child predator.” Abrego Garcia has denied these allegations.
“We are not going to allow this criminal Salvadoran gang member to be loose on U.S. streets to terrorize American citizens,” McLaughlin said.
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Abrego Garcia, a father of three, became a focal point of President Donald Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration after he was mistakenly deported in March. He returned to the U.S. in June following months in an El Salvador prison and was detained on human smuggling charges, including conspiracy to transport aliens and unlawful transportation of undocumented aliens. He has pleaded not guilty and called the charges “outrageous.”
The Trump administration has maintained that Abrego Garcia was affiliated with the MS-13 gang, a claim he denies. In April, Trump erroneously stated in an ABC News interview that Abrego Garcia had “MS-13” tattooed on his knuckles. In fact, the tattoos depict a marijuana leaf, a smiley face, a cross, and a skull; letters and numbers had been digitally added to suggest a gang reference.
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Abrego Garcia was first stopped by ICE agents on March 12. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, later told CBS Mornings that she only realized he had been deported when she saw his photo among detainees in the El Salvador prison.
Although he entered the U.S. illegally as a teenager in 2011, multiple outlets report that Abrego Garcia had been granted protected status due to concerns that gangs could persecute him in El Salvador. He had been living in Maryland with a work permit since 2019, according to Reuters.
During her CBS Mornings appearance, Vasquez Sura expressed fear for her husband’s safety. “I’ve seen news of that prison,” she said, referencing El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. “I know they take criminals there. And my husband’s not a criminal.”
