El Salvador won’t let Senator Chris Van Hollen have any contact with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who is being unlawfully detained in a megaprison in the country.
Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador Wednesday in search of answers about Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts. The father of three was deported last month due to an “administrative error” by the Trump administration, which continues to claim Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, despite there being no evidence to prove it.
The Democratic senator from Maryland asked Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa if he could arrange a meeting with Abrego Garcia, he told reporters Wednesday.
“He said he was not able to make that happen,” Van Hollen said, adding that Ulloa gave him the same response when he asked if he could come back next week instead.
“So I asked if I could get on the phone, either video phone or phone, and talk to Mr. Abrego Garcia to see how he’s doing,” Van Hollen continued. Ulloa won’t let that happen either. Nor will he allow Abrego Garcia to speak with his family, for whom Van Hollen promised he would get answers.
The Trump administration is currently paying El Salvador $6 million to detain more than 200 immigrants in CECOT, a megaprison where people all but disappear once they’re locked up. The notorious institution is the centerpiece of President Nayib Bukele’s violent crackdown on crime, and can hold up to 40,000 inmates. CECOT inmates are shut out from the outside world—they’re not allowed visitors or phone calls with loved ones, nor are there any programs to help them integrate back into society upon release—a cruel but convenient place for Trump to send people he doesn’t want tracked down.
Last week, the Supreme Court ordered the White House to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia, but Trump still hasn’t done anything to make that happen. And it seems like El Salvador won’t either, a scary indication of just how much the government is cozying up to Trump amid his mass deportation plans.
In a meeting with Trump on Monday, Bukele said he will not return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., nor will he release him in El Salvador, despite the Supreme Court’s orders. Van Hollen is the first Democrat to step up and demand Abrego Garcia’s release on Bukele’s home turf.
“The goal of this mission is to let the Trump administration, to let the government of El Salvador know that we are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home,” he said, finally showing some long-awaited courage from the Democratic Party.
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