Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen speaks to the press in La Libertad, El Salvador, throughout his journey to foyer for the discharge of deported Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Salvador Melendez/AP
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Salvador Melendez/AP
Sen. Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador this week to attempt to see and free his constituent Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whose unlawful deportation has sparked an uproar and an escalating authorized battle within the U.S. However the Maryland Democrat stated El Salvador’s authorities declined his requests for each.
Abrego Garcia, 29, is a Salvadoran citizen who lived and labored legally in Maryland for about 15 years earlier than he was wrongly deported to a infamous mega-prison in El Salvador final month — even though he was granted protections by a decide years earlier over considerations for his security if he had been to return there.
The Supreme Courtroom has since dominated that the Trump administration should facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., an order it has to this point ignored. And at a White Home assembly on Monday, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, declined to return him, calling the suggestion “preposterous.”
The state of affairs galvanized Van Hollen, to personally marketing campaign for — and attempt to go to — Abrego Garcia, who’s being held in a infamous mega-prison often known as CECOT.
“The goal of this mission is to let the Trump administration, to let the government of El Salvador, know that we are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home until he returns to his family,” Van Hollen stated from the airport. “We are going to keep fighting because this is a miscarriage of justice.”
The U.S. has accused Abrego Garcia of being a member of the transnational prison gang MS-13, which the Trump administration designated a Overseas Terrorist Group. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys dispute that he’s a member of the gang, and say he would not have a prison file.
After assembly with El Salvador’s vice chairman, Félix Ulloa, Van Hollen advised reporters on Wednesday that El Salvador’s authorities would not have proof that Abrego Garcia was concerned within the gang. He stated Ulloa advised him that Abrego Garcia stays in custody as a result of “the Trump administration is paying the government of El Salvador to keep him at CECOT.”
Van Hollen stated whereas he needed to see Abrego Garcia in individual and report again to his household, Ulloa advised him he would have wanted to make earlier preparations to go to the ability.
“I said, ‘I’m not interested in this moment in taking a tour of CECOT. I just want to meet with Mr. Abrego Garcia,’ ” Van Hollen stated. “He said he needed a little bit more time. I asked him if I came back next week whether I’d be able to see Mr. Abrego Garcia. He said he couldn’t promise that either.”
Van Hollen stated Ulloa couldn’t prepare a telephone or video name with Abrego Garcia, however advised him the American embassy may be capable to. He stated he plans to ask the embassy to take action, as he continues the struggle for Abrego Garcia’s return.
“I can assure the president and vice president that I may be the first United States senator to visit El Salvador on this issue, but there will be more, and there will be more members of congress coming,” Van Hollen stated.
White Home slams Van Hollen’s go to
On the identical day Van Hollen lobbied El Salvador to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., the White Home doubled down on its case in opposition to him.
“If he ever ends up back in the United States he would immediately be deported again,” White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated from the rostrum. “Nothing will change the fact that Abrego Garcia will never be a Maryland father, he will never live in the United States of America again.”
She accused Van Hollen of “potentially using taxpayer dollars” to fund his journey and slammed Democrats for supporting Abrego Garcia’s launch as an alternative of efforts to enhance border safety, which she stated would make Individuals safer.
Leavitt was joined on the press briefing by Maryland resident Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel was raped and murdered in 2023 by a fugitive from El Salvador, Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, who was convicted of the crime on Monday. Morin additionally spoke critically of Van Hollen.
“To have a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge, or barely acknowledge, my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother … so that he can use my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that’s not even an American citizen?” she stated.
Van Hollen’s workplace launched a press release in regards to the conviction within the case on Monday, thanking those that made the decision doable. He stated the nation can enhance public security and border safety “while also supporting our immigrant communities and respecting the rights of individuals who are here legally.”
Different lawmakers are mulling El Salvador visits
Van Hollen is not the one member of Congress to go to El Salvador not too long ago.
Two Republicans, West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore and Missouri Rep. Jason Smith, posted images to social media of themselves touring CECOT on Tuesday. They every spoke extremely of Trump’s deportation agenda, with Moore saying he leaves “even more determined” to assist the president’s efforts.
“It is unconscionable that Democrats in Congress are urging the release of more foreign criminals back into our country,” Smith tweeted.
A number of Home Democrats additionally hope to make the identical journey — and the alternative argument.
In two separate letters this week, Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida and Delia Ramirez of Illinois, requested the chair of the Home Oversight Committee, Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., to authorize a Congressional Member Delegation to go to CECOT.
Garcia and Frost wrote {that a} “Congressional delegation would allow Committee Members to conduct a welfare check on Mr. Abrego Garcia, as well as others held at CECOT.”
“In addition, congressional oversight is warranted following President Trump’s recent remarks in which he expressed a desire to send ‘homegrown criminals’ — including U.S. citizens — to this facility,” they stated, including that they’d gladly embrace Republicans on their journey and are ready to depart as quickly as doable.
