SAN SALVADOR (AP) — Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday and met with the nation’s vice chairman to push for the discharge of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a person who was despatched there by the Trump administration in March regardless of an immigration court docket order stopping his deportation.
Van Hollen mentioned at a information convention in San Salvador that Vice President Félix Ulloa mentioned his authorities couldn’t return Abrego Garcia to america and declined to permit Van Hollen to go to him within the notorious gang prison the place he’s being held.
“Why is the federal government of El Salvador persevering with to imprison a person the place they don’t have any proof that he’s dedicated any crime they usually haven’t been supplied any proof from america that he has dedicated any crime?” Van Hollen informed reporters after the assembly. “They need to simply let him go.”
Van Hollen’s journey grew to become a flashpoint within the U.S. The Trump administration sharply criticized it, whereas Democrats have rallied round Abrego Garcia.
President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said this week that they don’t have any foundation to ship him again, even because the U.S. Supreme Courtroom has referred to as on the administration to facilitate his return.
Trump officers have mentioned that Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was dwelling in Maryland, has ties to the MS-13 gang, however his attorneys say the federal government has supplied no proof of that and Abrego Garcia has by no means been charged with any crime associated to such exercise.
“We’ve an unjust state of affairs right here,” mentioned Van Hollen, a member of the Senate Overseas Relations Committee. “The Trump administration is mendacity about Abrego Garcia. The American courts have regarded on the details.”
Trump officers reiterated Wednesday that he wouldn’t be returned to america. White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt held a press briefing with the mom of a Maryland girl, Rachel Morin, who was killed by a fugitive from El Salvador in 2023.
“It’s appalling and unhappy that Sen. Van Hollen and the Democrats applauding his journey to El Salvador immediately are incapable of getting any shred of widespread sense or empathy for their very own constituents and our residents,” Leavitt mentioned on the briefing.
Republicans have targeted on the victims of crime dedicated by individuals within the U.S. illegally in arguing for Trump’s promised immigration crackdown and mass deportations.
Democrats, in the meantime, have seized on the case to focus on what they are saying is Trump’s disrespect for the courts and as base voters have inspired them to struggle tougher in opposition to Trump’s insurance policies. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., can also be contemplating a visit to El Salvador, as are some Home Democrats.
“It is a constitutional disaster,” mentioned Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., one of many Democrats who’s contemplating a visit. “This isn’t nearly a deportation coverage. That is about defying the Structure and the Supreme Courtroom.”
Garcia despatched a joint letter with Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., to Home Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., requesting a congressional delegation to journey to El Salvador to analyze Abrego Garcia’s situation. Garcia mentioned if the journey isn’t accredited, some Democrats nonetheless plan to journey to the Central American nation.
“We have to carry consideration to this case. We must be in El Salvador. We have to work with the household. We have to work with the Salvadoran authorities. We have to strain the White Home to do the precise factor,” Garcia mentioned.
Rep. Yassamin Ansari, an Arizona Democrat, wrote in a Wednesday assertion that she plans to journey to El Salvador to help Abrego Garcia’s return.
“My mother and father fled an authoritarian regime in Iran the place individuals ‘disappeared’ — I refuse to sit down again and watch it occur right here, too,” wrote Ansari, who’s Iranian American and the youngest girl in Congress.
Trump officers renewed their claims that Abrego Garcia was a gang member.
Tom Homan, Trump’s border czar, mentioned on Fox Information’ “Fox & Mates” that he’s “disgusted that any congressional consultant goes to run to El Salvador.”
“We removed a harmful individual, an El Salvadoran nationwide was returned to the nation of El Salvador, so he’s residence,” Homan mentioned.
Some Republicans have visited the jail as effectively in help of the Trump administration’s efforts. Rep. Riley Moore, a West Virginia Republican, posted Tuesday night that he’d visited the jail the place Abrego Garcia is being held. He didn’t point out Abrego Garcia however mentioned the ability “homes the nation’s most brutal criminals.”
“I go away now much more decided to help President Trump’s efforts to safe our homeland,” Moore wrote on social media.
Republican Rep. Jason Smith of Missouri, the chairman of the Home Methods and Means Committee, additionally visited the jail. He posted on X that “because of President Trump” the ability “now contains unlawful immigrants who broke into our nation and dedicated violent acts in opposition to People.”
The struggle over Abrego Garcia has additionally performed out in contentious court docket filings, with repeated refusals from the federal government to inform a choose what it plans to do, if something, to repatriate him. The Trump administration has referred to as his deportation a mistake but in addition has argued, primarily, that its conclusion about Abrego Garcia’s affiliation makes him ineligible for cover from the courts.
Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the U.S. more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants — whom Trump administration officers have accused of gang exercise and violent crimes — and positioned them contained in the nation’s maximum-security gang prison simply outdoors of San Salvador. That jail is a part of Bukele’s broader effort to crack down on the country’s powerful street gangs, which has put 84,000 individuals behind bars and made Bukele extraordinarily widespread at residence.
Human rights teams have beforehand accused Bukele’s authorities of subjecting these jailed to “systematic use of torture and different mistreatment.” Officers there deny wrongdoing.
Van Hollen mentioned after his assembly that Abrego Garcia was “illegally kidnapped from america and dedicated no crime.”
“I’ll preserve urgent in my remaining time right here and I’ll preserve urgent past that,” Van Hollen mentioned.
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Jalonick and Brown reported from Washington. Related Press author Seung Min Kim contributed to this report.
