Sen. Chris Van Hollen had earlier requested a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during the leader’s visit to Washington.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said on April 15 that he will travel to El Salvador on April 16 to visit his constituent, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the illegal immigrant who is detained in his home country after being deported by U.S. federal authorities.
In a statement, Van Hollen said that he hopes to visit Abrego Garcia and “check on his well-being,” while also seeking “constructive conversations with government officials” around his release.
Van Hollen called the Salvadoran man’s deportation to El Salvador “abduction and unlawful,” noting that U.S. federal courts have ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his safe return to the United States.
“It should be a priority of the U.S. government to secure his safe release, which is why tomorrow, I am traveling to El Salvador,” he
said. “We must urgently continue working to return Kilmar safely home to Maryland.”
The senator had earlier
requested a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during the leader’s visit to Washington and said that he would go to El Salvador if Abrego Garcia was not returned by midweek.
In an emailed statement to The Epoch Times, White House communications director Steven Cheung said Van Hollen showed “more concern and sympathy” toward an alleged MS-13 gang member than for the victims of “horrific migrant crimes.”
Other Democratic lawmakers, such as Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), have asked for approval to send an official delegation to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia is currently being held by Salvadoran authorities.
Garcia and Frost sent a
letter to House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chair
James Comer (R-Ky.) on April 15, calling for a congressional delegation to conduct a welfare check on Abrego Garcia and other illegal immigrants detained at the maximum security prison.
They said that congressional oversight is “warranted” in light of President Donald Trump’s recent
remarks suggesting that he would consider deporting U.S. citizens who have committed crimes, to be held in El Salvador.
The Department of Homeland Security (DHS) issued a
statement on April 14 to “set the record straight” regarding Abrego Garcia’s detention in El Salvador amid calls for his return.
“I think this illegal alien is exactly where he belongs—home in El Salvador,” DHS assistant secretary Tricia McLaughlin stated. “He was in our country illegally, he is from El Salvador, was born in El Salvador, and, oh, the media forgot to mention: He is a MS-13 gang member.”
Abrego Garcia illegally entered the United States in 2011. He was arrested and deported to El Salvador in March for allegedly being a member of the MS-13 gang, a U.S.-designated terrorist organization.
An immigration judge had granted him withholding of removal in 2019, preventing his return to El Salvador over concerns for his safety because of inter-gang violence in his home country. The Trump administration has
said that Abrego Garcia was deported because of an administrative error.
In a court filing on April 14, Joseph Mazzara, acting general counsel at DHS,
said the department “does not have authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.”
Mazzara also said that Abrego Garcia is no longer eligible for withholding of removal because MS-13 is considered a foreign terrorist organization, and that even if he is able to return to the United States, DHS would deport him again to El Salvador or another country.
Mazzara also cited Bukele’s recent
remarks at the White House, where he said that El Salvador would not return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
“I hope you’re not suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States,” Bukele told reporters. “How can I return him to the United States? ... Of course, I’m not going to do it.”
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis on April 15
ordered two weeks of expedited discovery, including depositions of government officials and document requests, to determine whether the Trump administration had acted to comply with her order to facilitate the man’s return to the United States.
Sam Dorman contributed to this report.
