Senator Chris Van Hollen confirmed Thursday night that he met Kilmar Abrego García, a man that Trump’s administration said he erroneously deported El Salvador in March.
“I said that my main objective of this trip was to meet Kilmar. Tonight I had that opportunity. I called his wife, Jennifer, to transmit his love message. I hope to provide a complete update on my return,” Van Hollen wrote in an X post.
The images of Van Hollen’s meeting with Abrego García were first published online by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who has rejected calls to return Abrego García to the United States
During an Oval office meeting on Monday, Bukele said he does not have the power to authorize Abrego García’s return to the United States
Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday to promote the launch of Abrego García after the Trump administration did not demonstrate any effort to “facilitate” its return, despite a failure of the Supreme Court last week that required that.
The legal battle continued on Thursday, when a Federal Court of Appeals rejected an effort of the administration to suspend that requirement. In a unanimous ruling, a panel of three judges said in his decision that the administration was trying to affirm “a right to hide a hide and manure to residents of this country in foreign prisons without the appearance of due process.”
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Van Hollen, who represents the state where Abrego García lived before being sent to El Salvador, has called for the resistance of the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Abrego García to the United States an attempt to “cover up” his unfair deportation.
The Maryland senator has met this week with human rights groups, local embassy staff and senior Salvadoran officials, including vice president Félix Ulloa.
Before his meeting with Abrego García, Van Hollen said Thursday that he was denied entry to prison in El Salvador, where Abrego García stops: a terrorism confinement center called CECOT.
Van Hollen said he tried to enter the facilities with Chris Newman, the lawyer who represents the wife and mother of Abrego García, to “verify the health and well -being of Kilmar”, but the entrance was quickly denied.
“The soldiers arrested us at a control point about 3 kilometers from Cecot prison,” Van Hollen told reporters. “The soldiers told us that they had been ordered that they did not allow us to proceed beyond that point.”
During a meeting with El Salvador vice president on Wednesday, Van Hollen said that his requests to talk to Abrego García, in person, practically or by telephone, were denied.
The vice president also denied a request from Van Hollen that day to facilitate a phone call between Abrego García and his wife, Jennifer Vásquez Sura, who says he has not spoken with him since he was transferred to the Central American facilities.
Sura said Thursday night that Van Hollen’s meeting gave him hope.
“My children and my prayers have been answered. The efforts of my family and community are heard in the struggle for justice, because now I know that my husband is alive. God is listening and the community is strong,” he said in a statement.
Several Maryland officials wrote on Thursday to the Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, demanding the “verifiable evidence that Kilmar Abrego García is alive, healthy and safe.”
“Now more than a month has passed since Mr. Abrego García was illegally deported by federal authorities in direct violation of a court order, and during that time, his family has not received a significant confirmation of his health,” the officials wrote.
Abrego García first entered the United States in 2011 and was then protected from deportation by a 2019 court order that prevents him from being sent back to El Salvador.
