Senator Chris Van Hollen Heads to El Salvador to Check on Deported Immigrant (2025)

Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, on Wednesday tried and failed to secure a meeting in El Salvador with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant and Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration and remains imprisoned in his native country.

Mr. Van Hollen’s trip was the latest chapter in an intensifying political battle over the case of Mr. Abrego Garcia, who was removed from the United States last month in what immigration officials acknowledged was an error. Although the Supreme Court has instructed the U.S. government to facilitate his return, both American and Salvadoran authorities have so far refused to do so.

Mr. Van Hollen met with El Salvador’s vice president, Félix Ulloa, as well as officials at the U.S. embassy there, but he came away with no assurances that he would be able to see or even speak to Mr. Abrego Garcia, who is being held in a notorious maximum security prison known for human rights violations.

And his visit did little to change the minds of the Trump administration or Salvadoran officials who have refused to release Mr. Abrego Garcia. After his meeting with Mr. Ulloa, Mr. Van Hollen told reporters that the explanation the vice president provided for continuing to keep Mr. Abrego Garcia in detention in the absence of a criminal charge against him was that the Trump administration was paying El Salvador to do so.

“I’m asking President Bukele under his authority as president of El Salvador to do the right thing and allow Mr. Abrego Garcia to walk out of a prison — a man who’s charged with no crime, convicted of no crime and who was illegally abducted from the United States,” Mr. Van Hollen told reporters in San Salvador, the capital.

The Trump administration has accused Mr. Abrego Garcia of being a member of the dangerous transnational gang MS-13. Mr. Van Hollen portrayed him instead as an innocent family man who was illegally “abducted” from the streets of Maryland in a miscarriage of justice, and bluntly accused the Trump administration of “lying” to justify its mistakes in deporting him.