Detention center holding Kilmar Abrego Garcia is ‘notoriously awful,’ advocate says

PRINCE EDWARD COUNTY, Va. (WRIC) -- Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was wrongly deported, is currently being held at Farmville Detention Center as he faces renewed deportation efforts from the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

This detainment is raising concerns with advocates 8News spoke with, who called the Farmville facility "one of the worst detention centers in the country."

Last Friday, Abrego Garcia was released from a Tennessee prison into his brother's custody in Maryland. But he still faces federal human smuggling charges.

Abrego Garcia's lawyers called the federal charges preposterous and vindictive. And advocates for the closure of the detention facility say his detainment at Farmville is also intentional.

This is the same detention center that was toured by Virginia Congressman Don Beyer just weeks prior, and that violated ICE detention standards 19 times in a 2024 inspection.

"It's a notoriously awful place for human rights abuses," said Cayce Utley, organizer with Free Them All VA. "It's very punitive. And so it feels to me like, being his second detention, they're trying to make a point by sending him to one of the worst detention centers in the country."

Abrego Garcia's case has been highly publicized since he was deported to his birth country of El Salvador in March in violation of a court order.

Utley said she hopes his detention at Farmville will bring more attention to the issues there.

"We need to remember [that] for every one case that's highlighted, there are hundreds and thousands of cases that go unacknowledged."

8News has reached out to ICE for comment on the conditions at Farmville. We are waiting to hear back.