A top Salvadoran official on Wednesday rejected Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s request to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man the Trump administration said it mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month.
Van Hollen, D-Md., met with Félix Ulloa, the vice president of El Salvador, and framed Abrego Garcia's deportation as an "illegal abduction." He said he asked for an in-person visit to ensure Abrego Garcia's safety and health.
Ulloa refused to allow a virtual or in-person meeting, in addition to denying Van Hollen's request to facilitate a phone call between Abrego Garcia and his family.
"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 said.
The Maryland senator, who represents the state where Abrego Garcia lived before he was sent to a prison in El Salvador, called the Trump administration's resistance to facilitating Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. an attempt to "cover up" his wrongful deportation.
Van Hollen flew to El Salvador on Wednesday to push for Abrego Garcia's release after the mistakenly deported man was not returned to the U.S. by midweek, one of the senator's conditions for embarking on the trip.
In a video post shortly before departing, the senator said that his goal was to show the Trump administration and El Salvador's government "that we are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home until he returns to his family."
He later teased future trips to El Salvador by other U.S. lawmakers.
"There will be more members of Congress coming," he said.
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The Justice Department has said that it mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, and the administration has been ordered by a judge to "facilitate" his return — a move that the Supreme Court later reaffirmed.
The Trump administration has argued in several court filings that it does not have the power to force Abrego Garcia's return to the U.S. El Salvador's president, Nayib Bukele, said during an Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday that he wouldn't send Abrego Garcia back to the U.S., saying that "the question is preposterous."
Van Hollen said Wednesday afternoon that he was told by the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador that "they’ve received no direction from the Trump administration to help facilitate his release."
"The Trump administration is clearly in violation of American court orders," Van Hollen added.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt criticized Van Hollen’s trip during a briefing Wednesday afternoon. She repeated the administration’s claim that Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gang member. She also reiterated that if he were to return to the U.S., “he would immediately be deported again.”
“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,” Leavitt said.
Abrego Garcia has never been criminally charged in the U.S. or El Salvador, according to court records, and his lawyers have denied that he’s a gang member.
Van Hollen in a video post Wednesday evening said the Trump administration's focus on MS-13 distracts from what he's described as the real issue at hand: the government's refusal to provide Abrego Garcia an avenue to dispute its claims.
"This is not about MS-13. I know President Trump wants to make this about gang violence," Van Hollen said. "This is simply about letting him have his day in court. We use the courts to make sure that we don’t convict people who are not guilty, and that we convict those who are."
The Trump administration on Wednesday released a series of documents in an effort to support its contention that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who is presiding over Abrego Garcia’s case, has previously questioned the government's determination that he is a gang member.
Abrego Garcia migrated to the U.S. in 2011 and was protected by a 2019 court order that he could not be sent back to El Salvador.
