U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen says El Salvador blocked him from visiting a constituent who was mistakenly deported.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was sent to the notorious maximum security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) last month.
The Trump administration said he was a member of the MS-13 gang, but his lawyers say there is no proof of this.
Abrego Garcia illegally immigrated in 2011 at the age of 16, but he was granted an immigration court order preventing his deportation over fears of gang persecution.
Senator Chris Van Hollen is in El Salvador to seek the release of deported Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Image credits: AFP / Scanpix
Government officials have stated in court that his deportation was an “administrative error.”
Van Hollen met with the vice president of El Salvador, Félix Ulloa, on Wednesday to discuss the case.
The meeting came after El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele met with President Donald Trump in the White House on Monday.
Both leaders said there was “no basis” to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
Image credits: Jennifer Vasquez
Speaking at a press conference after the meeting, Van Hollen said he had been blocked from meeting with Abrego Garcia.
“I asked the vice-president if I could meet with Mr Abrego Garcia. And he said, ‘Well, you need to make earlier provisions to go visit CECOT,’” Van Hollen said.
“I said, ‘I’m not interested at this moment in taking a tour of CECOT, I just want to meet with Mr Abrego Garcia.’ He said he was not able to make that happen.”
Van Hollen added that he had asked why Abrego Garcia was being held if the U.S. courts had found no evidence to support the charge that he was a member of MS-13.
“His answer was that the Trump administration is paying El Salvador, the government of El Salvador to keep him at CECOT,” the senator said.
El Salvador can’t “smuggle Mr Abrego Garcia” into the U.S., Ulloa reportedly told Van Hollen when he asked for his release, echoing Bukele’s response to a similar question during his visit to the White House.
“I’m asking President Bukele... to do the right thing and allow Mr Abrego Garcia to walk out of prison, a man who’s charged with no crime, convicted of no crime, and who was illegally abducted from the United States,” Van Hollen added.
Trump and Bukele said there was no basis to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., remarks repeated by El Salvador’s VP
Van Hollen’s attempts to intervene in the case have been criticized by Republicans and a grieving mother.
Patty Morin criticized Van Hollen after Victor Martinez-Hernadez, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador, was convicted of the murder and rape of her daughter, Rachel Morin, earlier this week.
At a White House news conference, she said: “To have a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge or barely acknowledged my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother and now a grandbaby without a grandmother, so that he can use my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that’s not even an American citizen, why does that person have more right than I do for my daughter, for my grandchildren?”
After Martinez-Hernadez’s conviction, Van Hollen released a statement saying the “verdict brings a measure of justice.”
Image credits: Win McNamee / Getty Images
Abrego Garcia was among hundreds of people deported to El Salvador in March under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.
Venezuelan national Merwil Gutiérrez, 19, was also sent to CECOT. His father has since claimed he was not the intended target of ICE agents, but they detained him in February anyway.
Gutiérrez’s family insists he has no links to any gangs, no criminal record, and no tattoos, which are used to link people to gang activity.
A court has now ruled Trump’s administration defied a court order by deporting hundreds of people to El Salvador, and warned they could face contempt.
On March 15, hundreds of people alleged to be gang members by the administration were on board a flight to the notorious El Salvadorian prison.
Van Hollen’s visit was criticized by a grieving mother whose daughter was raped and killed by an illegal immigrant
A U.S. federal judge ordered the deportation be halted, but the planes were not turned around to the U.S.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Wednesday said that “probably cause exists” to hold the Trump administration in contempt of court for violating the order.
In his ruling, Judge Boasberg said refusing to turn the planes around demonstrated “a willful disregard” that is “sufficient for the Court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the Government in criminal contempt.”
“The Court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given Defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions,” he wrote.
“None of their responses has been satisfactory.”
“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders—especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” Boasberg added.
If the migrants are returned by April 23, the contempt charges will be removed.
The Trump administration maintains it was able to deport the migrants under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798.