Senator Chris Van Hollen confirmed Thursday evening that he had met Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man whom the Trump administration said that she was mistakenly expelled to El Salvador in March.
“I said that my main objective of this trip was to meet Kilmar. Tonight, I was lucky. I called his wife, Jennifer, to transmit her love message. I can’t wait to provide a complete update upon my return,” wrote Van Hollen in an article on X.
Images of Van Hollen’s meeting with Abrego Garcia were published for the first time online by the president of Salvadoran, Nayib Bukele, who postponed calls to return Abrego Garcia to the United States
Van Hollen went to Salvador on Wednesday to put pressure on the release of Abrego Garcia after being transported to the United States despite a decision of the Supreme Court which ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” its return.
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Maryland senator, who represents the state where Abrego Garcia lived before being sent to El Salvador, called on the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States, an attempt to “hide” his unjustified deportation.
Van Hollen met this week for human rights groups, local staff of the embassy and senior Salvadoral officials, including vice-president Félix Ulloa.
Before his meeting with Abrego Garcia, Van Hollen said Thursday that he was denied the entrance to Salvador prison where Abrego Garcia was detained: a terrorism confinement center called Cecot.
Van Hollen said that he had tried to enter the establishment alongside Chris Newman, the lawyer representing the woman and the mother of Abrego Garcia, to “check the health and well-being of Kilmar”, but quickly was refused the entrance.
“We were arrested by soldiers at a checkpoint about 3 kilometers from Cecot prison,” Van Hollen told journalists. “The soldiers told us that they were ordered not to allow us to continue further than this point.”
During a meeting with El Salvador vice-president on Wednesday, Van Hollen said that his requests to speak with Abrego Garcia, in person, practically or by phone, had been refused.
The vice-president also denied a van Hollen request that day to facilitate a phone call between Abrego Garcia and his wife, who says that she has not spoken to him since he was transferred to the installation of Central America.
Several officials of Maryland wrote to the Secretary of Internal Security, Kristi Noem, to demand “a verifiable proof that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is alive, healthy and safe”.
“It has been more than a month since Mr. Abrego Garcia was illegally expelled by the federal authorities in direct violation of a court order, and during this time, his family has received no significant confirmation of his health,” the officials wrote.
Abrego Garcia emigrated to the United States in 2011 and was protected by an order from the 2019 court that it could not be sent back to Salvador.
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