US Senator meets with mistakenly deported man in El Salvador

MEXICO CITY

US Senator Chris Van Hollen announced Thursday that he finally established contact with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who the Trump administration said it mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month.

The development came after repeated refusals by the Salvadoran government to facilitate communication.

The Maryland lawmaker said in a post on X that he had managed to meet with Abrego Garcia, who is currently incarcerated at El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT).

“I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return,” Van Hollen wrote.

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele mocked the meeting between Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia.

"Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture,’ now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador," he wrote.

The case has attracted international attention due to its connection with the mass deportation program supported by US President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s prison policies under Bukele. The two administrations collaborated to transfer immigrants living in the US accused of gang affiliation to El Salvador’s high-security prisons.

According to the Trump administration, Abrego Garcia was mistakenly apprehended and deported under allegations linking him to the MS-13 gang—a Salvadoran criminal group designated as a Foreign Terrorist Organization by Trump.

In October 2019, an immigration judge denied an asylum request by Abrego Garcia but granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador. Despite the ruling, US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents arrested and deported him to El Salvador, where he was subsequently incarcerated.

Abrego Garcia, a US resident with a valid work permit, was living in the state of Maryland with his US citizen wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, at the time of his arrest.

Van Hollen has actively pushed for his return to the US, despite facing repeated obstruction from Salvadoran authorities.

Earlier this month, Van Hollen met with Salvadoran Vice President Felix Ulloa to request a meeting with Abrego Garcia. The senator has described his detention as an illegal abduction and a violation of due process and international human rights.

Ulloa reportedly denied both physical and virtual access to Abrego Garcia.

The next day, Van Hollen said the Salvadoran military barred him from entering the CECOT facility during a second attempt to check on Abrego Garcia’s safety and well-being.

Earlier Thursday, Van Hollen held a press conference, saying “we won’t give up until Kilmar has his rights respected.”

Van Hollen has been advocating for Abrego Garcia’s safe return to the US and proper legal proceedings, noting that even the Trump administration has since admitted that he was wrongfully deported.

“The judge has looked at those facts and concluded that Mr. Abrego Garcia was illegally abducted and taken out of the country and now sits unlawfully in CECOT prison in El Salvador. We need to make sure the court system and due process work, because if you take it away from any individual, it's a very short road to taking it away from every American,” Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen’s efforts to communicate with Abrego Garcia and ensure his well-being during his incarceration at the infamously brutal penitentiary had been consistently obstructed by the Salvadoran government.

“There’s been no ability to find out anything about his health and well-being. The US embassy here was never asked by the Trump administration to inquire about his condition. And I should point out that this inability to communicate with his lawyer is a violation of international law,” the senator said.

In the three years since President Bukele imposed a state of emergency in El Salvador, human rights watchdogs have condemned the severe abuses that have occurred, including enforced disappearances, torture, sexual violence and extrajudicial killings.

“If the government of El Salvador remains complicit in the illegal detention of Mr. Abrego García in CECOT prison, then there will be, I think, actions proposed certainly until we resolve this very important issue," Van Hollen added.