A MAGA congressman was allowed a photoshoot Tuesday in the infamous El Salvador megaprison where President Donald Trump is stashing deportees.
A day later, a Democratic senator who wanted to speak to a constituent the Trump administration accidentally deported—Maryland dad Kilmar Abrego Garcia—was turned away by the Salvadoran government.
Rep. Riley Moore splashed his social feeds with photos of himself posing in front of bare-chested prison inmates on a tour of El Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo. It was similar to a publicity stunt undertaken by Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem two weeks ago, although she donned a $60 thousand Rolex for the occasion.
I just toured the CECOT prison in El Salvador. This maximum security facility houses the country’s most brutal criminals, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and terrorists. Several inmates were extremely violent criminals recently deported from the U.S. I leave now even… pic.twitter.com/zhO8i2IbOd
— Rep. Riley M. Moore (@RepRileyMoore) April 15, 2025
“I just toured the CECOT prison in El Salvador,” the the West Virginia Republican wrote. “This maximum security facility houses the country’s most brutal criminals, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and terrorists. Several inmates were extremely violent criminals recently deported from the U.S. I leave now even more determined to support President Trump’s efforts to secure our homeland.”
The terrorist detention facility has become a political flashpoint as the Trump administration has used it to house planeloads of undocumented immigrants, whom it claims are violent criminals and gang members.
The president has become embroiled in multiple legal battles for his defiance of court orders blocking his deportations to El Salvador and demanding Abrego Garcia’s return to the states.
The White House has maintained that Abrego Garcia, 29, a married father of three, is part of the MS-13 gang, which his legal team denies. A Trump official previously admitted that he was deported due to an “administrative error.”
The Supreme Court ruled 9-0 that the president must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return. Yet Trump has said that he couldn’t bring the man back even if he wanted to, because he is in the hands of the Salvadoran government—a stance supported by President Nayib Bukele, a Trump ally.
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, visited El Salvador in an attempt to speak to Abrego Garcia. He said Bukele’s vice president on Wednesday refused to let him visit the prison or talk to Abrego Garcia on the phone.
“I asked the vice president—if Abrego Garcia has not committed a crime, and if courts found that he was illegally taken, and the government of El Salvador has found no evidence he was part of MS-13—then why is El Salvador continuing to hold him?” Van Hollen told reporters.
Undeterred, Van Hollen tried again to enter the prison on Thursday, but he said in a video posted to X that his car was stopped at a security checkpoint and he was denied.
We were just denied entry into CECOT — the notorious prison in El Salvador where Mr. Abrego Garcia is being illegally held.We were there for one simple reason: to check on his well-being, which his family and lawyers have not been allowed to do. We won’t stop fighting. pic.twitter.com/yG2b7N6Nvn
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) April 17, 2025
“We were there for one simple reason: to check on his wellbeing, which his family and lawyers have not been allowed to do,” the congressman said. “We won’t stop fighting.”
A spokesperson for Moore, the Republican representative, did not immediately answer a Daily Beast email seeking explanation of how he was able to tour the prison.
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