US senator and democrat Chris Van Hollen travelled to El Salvador this week and met its vice president Felix Ulloa on Wednesday in a bid to secure the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident mistakenly deported under the Trump administration.
The senator, however, was denied access to Garcia, who remains imprisoned in a notorious facility in his home country. CECOT, a high-security prison is known for human rights violations. Attempts to involve the US embassy also failed to secure family contact or visitation.
Speaking with reporters, Hollen said he declined a tour of the prison, stressing he was only interested in seeing the man held inside.
“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’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,” he added.
Van Hollen said he offered to return next week to meet Garcia, but vice-president Ulloa told him he could not promise that either. Ulloa also said he could not arrange a phone call between Garcia and his family. When the senator asked if he could speak to him himself, Ulloa replied that the request would have to come from the US embassy.
Hollen also claimed the Salvadoran government is being paid to hold deportees like Abrego Garcia, while criticising the Trump administration for falsely labelling Garcia as a gang member, saying, “He’s charged with no crime and convicted of no crime.”
The US supreme court has already directed the federal government to arrange Abrego Garcia’s return, but no action has been taken by either American or Salvadoran officials.
Hollen’s trip follows El Salvador’s president Bukele’s recent visit to Washington, where he stood with US president Trump and refused to release Abrego Garcia.
Garcia, 29, was living in Maryland with his wife and child under a special immigration status that protected him from being deported. But despite a judge’s order allowing him to remain in the United States due to fears of gang persecution in El Salvador, he was deported last month.
The Trump administration later admitted the removal was the result of an “administrative error”, but has since refused to comply with the supreme court directive to bring him back.
