El Salvador’s government denied Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) a visit with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man mistakenly deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador despite a Supreme Court opinion telling the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the United States.
Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday and met with the country’s vice president, Félix Ulloa, to request a meeting or a phone call to check on Abrego Garcia’s welfare. Ulloa turned him down.
“He said you need to make earlier provisions to go visit CECOT,” Van Hollen told reporters after the meeting in San Salvador, referring to the maximum security prison with a reputation for torture. “I said I’m not interested in a tour, I just want to meet with Mr. Abrego Garcia. He said maybe if the American Embassy will ask, maybe that could happen.”
Ulloa also rejected Van Hollen’s request that Abrego Garcia be released from prison, telling him the Trump administration was paying the government of El Salvador to keep him there.
“He said El Salvador can’t smuggle Mr. Abrego Garcia into the United States,” Van Hollen said. He added: “And I said, I’m not asking him to smuggle Mr. Abrego Garcia in the United States. I’m simply asking him to open the door of CECOT.”
The Maryland Democrat accused the Trump administration and the government of El Salvador of lying about Abrego Garcia, who lived in the U.S. legally for 14 years and who has not been charged with any crimes.
“The Trump administration needs to obey the law, but I’m also asking ... the president and VP of El Salvador not to keep a man who is illegally abducted from the United States and charged with no crime to remain in CECOT,” he said.
Trump administration officials, meanwhile, said Abrego Garcia was deported last month based on a 2019 accusation from local police in Maryland that he was an MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia and his wife have denied the allegation and said he was misidentified.
The Justice Department previously said Abrego Garcia was deported due to an “administrative error.” The career DOJ attorney who made the disclosure was later suspended by Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Van Hollen said he would not stop pressing for Abrego Garcia’s release.
“The Trump administration is clearly in violation of American court orders,” he said Wednesday.