U.S. senator traveling to El Salvador says he was denied to go to Kilmar Abrego Garcia
U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said Wednesday that authorities in El Salvador denied his trip to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an Salvador man who was wrongly deported and detained in the country's infamous prison.
Van Hollen arrived in Central American countries on Wednesday to meet with senior officials released by Abrego Garcia, but El Salvador Vice President Felix Ulloa told him he could not authorize a visit or visit with Abrego Garcia.
Van Hollen, a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Ulloa also told him that El Salvador did not release Abrego Garcia because the United States was paying to put him in jail.
“Why is the U.S. government paying the El Salvador government to lock in a person who was illegally kidnapped the United States without committing a crime?” said Sen. Van Hollen, Maryland, where Abrego Garcia lives.
The El Salvador government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Van Horen's visit.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Democratic senators could use taxpayers’ money to “demand the release of illegal alien MS-13 terrorists who were deported.”
“It is shocking and sad that Senator Van Hollen and Democrats applauded the trip to El Salvador today and could not bring any common sense or compassion to their own voters and our citizens,” she told reporters.
Abrego Garcia, 29, left El Salvador at the age of 16 to escape gang-related violence, his lawyer said. He received a protection order in 2019 to continue living in the United States
According to his attorney, he has never been charged with any crime, and they denied that the U.S. Department of Justice allegations were that he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13.
The U.S. government claims no right to bring people back
Washington admitted to being deported due to administrative errors, and the U.S. Supreme Court has directed the Trump administration to promote Abreg Garcia's return.
At a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele said he had no plans to return to Abrego Garcia. The Department of Homeland Security alone said it has no authority to bring the man back to the United States.
Along with Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration expelled hundreds of people, most of whom were Venezuelans, said to be members of the gang, which was expelled from El Salvador without evidence and without trial under the Foreign Enemy Act of 1798.
The lawyer said that since he arrived at the prison, the government has not released the names of the incarcerated people who have not contacted the lawyer or any contact with the outside world.
In March, the judge said flights carried by immigrants prosecuted under the Alien Enemies Act should return to the United States, Buckley wrote on X that it was too late, and along with the images, the man was driven out of the plane in the dark.
A federal judge said Wednesday that officials in the Trump administration could face criminal prosecution for temp deportation of Venezuelan immigrants under the Foreign Enemy Act.
