6 days Ago
As opposed to tattooed gang members in brightly lit, crowded cells, the inmates at the Centro Industrial prison in Santa Ana wear yellow T-shirts and move more or less freely. Some spend much of their time outdoors raising dairy cows and growing vegetables. Others work in factories making uniforms for the armed forces or desks for public schools.
The government calls them "trusted inmates": They have exhibited good behavior and are in the final years of their sentences. And the prison categorically excludes anyone accused of belonging to a gang. An inmate feeds a calf in Centro Industrial prison in Santa Ana, El Salvador, this month.
NBC News "We only house the common population," said Samuel Diaz, the prison's director and warden. "No gang members work here." NBC News obtained access Monday to the Centro Industrial in Santa Ana in a carefully choreographed tour.
Officials did not provide access to Abrego Garcia, and they would not answer questions about his location, the conditions of his detention or any other aspects of his case. But they facilitated interviews with other inmates, who described the conditions in the prison as "perfect" and "excellent." The Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to "facilitate" the return of Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who the Justice Department has acknowledged should not have been sent to a prison in his native El Salvador because of an immigration judge's 2019 order barring such action.
For human rights advocates in El Salvador and the United States, the details of Abrego Garcia's transfer — from the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a supermax prison specifically designed for gang members, to a low-security prison from which gang members are excluded — contradicts a central claim made by both governments: that Abrego Garcia is a dangerous member of MS-13 and a terrorist. (His wife and his attorney deny those allegations.) Inmates paint in the Centro Industrial prison in Santa Ana, El Salvador.
NBC...
David Noriega.
