“It’s good to be at home. Now we have to put an end to the illegal kidnapping of and also bring it home.” Those were the first statements of Maryland’s Democratic Senator, Chris Van Hollen, after his meeting in El Salvador with the immigrant who was mistakenly deported by Donald Trump’s administration last month. The congressman traveled to the Central American country to press for his release, after the Supreme Court ordered the Government to facilitate its return to the United States. There, in one match on Thursday afternoon, Abrego García told him that he feels “traumatized” for having been sent to an infamous prison of maximum security, where he spent about three weeks before being transferred to another center where he remains isolated.
The senator is the first person to directly contact Abrego García since his deportation in March. In a press conference after landing at Virginia airport, the Democrat detailed what has elapsed at that meeting, which he warned was recorded by the Salvadoran government. According to Van Hollen, the first thing that the migrant wanted to know is how his family is, as they are dealing with this “nightmare.” “He said that thinking about you, members of your family, is what gives you strength to persevere, to move forward day by day, even in these horrible circumstances,” said the congressman in front of Abrego García’s wife and other relatives, who appeared by his side during the conference.
The man told him what has happened since he was arrested by migratory agents in mid -March. The Salvadoran was sent to a detention center in Baltimore (Maryland), where he asked to make a phone call but was denied. He was then taken to Texas and “at some later time, he does not know if hours or days, they put cracks on his hands and put him in an plane, along with other people, in which they could not see for the windows,” said Van Hollen.
On March 16 he landed in El Salvador and took him to the CECOT, the maximum security prison built by the president of the country, Nayib Bukele, denounced for his bad conditions and the violation of human rights of inmates. “They put it in a cell with, if I remember correctly, about 25 more prisoners. He said he was not afraid of the other prisoners in his immediate cell, but that he was traumatized for being in the Cecot and fearful of many of the prisoners in other cells of cells, who called him and made fun of him in several ways.”
According to what Abrego García told the senator, the migrant was moved to another detention center nine days ago, where the conditions are better. “But he said that, despite the best conditions, he still does not have access to any news from the outside world and without being able to communicate with anyone in the outside world. His conversation with me was the first communication with someone from outside the prison since he was kidnapped. He said he felt very sad to be in a prison because he had not committed any crime,” said Van Hollen.
Abrego García was deported in what the Trump government has admitted was an “administrative error”, since the 29 -year -old man had a 2019 court order that forbade him to be sent back to his native country because he could be persecuted for local gangs. The groups had already threatened him as a child and caused his emigration to the United States when he was only 16 years old. However, the Trump administration deported it-without process-along with another 23 Salvadorans and 238 Venezuelans, all accused of having links with Latin American gangs such as the Venezuelan Train of Aragua or the Salvadoran MS-13. It is now known that the vast majority of those deported, including Abrego García, lacked criminal records.
Gathering with the migrant was not easy, said Van Hollen. Then requesting a meeting with the Salvadoran President, who was in Washington at the beginning of the week. Upon arriving in San Salvador, he met with the vice president of the Central American country, Félix Ulloa, who insisted that his government was not going to free Abrego García. “I asked if I could meet him. The answer was no. I asked if I could meet him if he returned the following week. The answer was no. I asked if I could call him on the phone. The answer was no. I asked if his wife Jennifer could call him on the phone. The answer was no; not his wife, not his mother, not his lawyers,” he said.
The next day, on Thursday, the congressman tried to visit the Cecot to see Abrego García, but he was denied. The Democrat said that his vehicle was arrested by soldiers in a control post a few kilometers from the prison, even while letting other cars pass. This despite the fact that several Republicans have visited the prison in recent weeks. At the end of last month, the Secretary of National Security, Kristi Noem, was in jail, from where she sent a blunt message: “I want everyone to know, if they come to our country illegally, this is one of the consequences they can face.”
Hours later, out of nowhere, when he was already preparing for his flight back to the United States, Van Hollen received news that the Salvadoran government would let him meet with the migrant at the hotel where he was staying.
President Bukele, on the other hand, and repeated that he would ignore the calls to return man to the United States. “Kilmar Abrego García, miraculously resurrected from the ‘extermination fields’ and the ‘torture’, now taking margaritas with the senator van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!”, The president wrote in X, and then added: “Now that it has been confirmed that she is healthy, she has the honor of remaining under the custody of El Salvador.”
Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody 🇺🇸🤝🏼🇸🇻
– Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele)
Other Democrats have said that they will travel to El Salvador to advocate for the release of Abrego García, but it is not clear if the trips, or Van Hollen’s meeting, will have some effect on their situation, since both the Trump administration and the Government of El Salvador remain firm in their insistence that they will not free it, despite not having any proof that it has committed some crime.
In a statement after the meeting between Van Hollen and the Migrant, the Vice Secretary of the White House press, Kush Desai, repeated the unseeding accusation that Abrego García was a member of the Salvadoran Criminal Band MS-13 and, therefore, must remain imprisoned. This accusation is based on a police report on which it is stated that the migrant belongs to the gang for the clothes he dressed when he was approached by the authorities in 2019.
“Chris Van Hollen has firmly established Democrats as the party whose highest priority is the well-being of an illegal foreign terrorist from the MS-13,” said Desai. “He is truly disgusting. President Trump will continue to be on the side of Americans respectful of the law. ”
From Washington they argue that they cannot do anything for him because he is imprisoned in a foreign country, and from San Salvador they argue that he is a “terrorist” and deserves where he is. Meanwhile, the legal battle for its release and return has fueled a pulse between President Trump and the country courts. A Federal Appeals Court said Thursday that the Trump administration statement that it cannot do anything to free Ábrego García and return it to the United States was “scandalous.”
The Supreme Court ordered the government for more than a week to “facilitate” its return, but, according to the federal judge in charge of the case, the Administration has done “nothing” for complying with that order. Therefore, Maryland’s district magistrate, Paula Xinis, demanded that in the next two weeks – or has not done – to bring man back. Some officials will also have to declare under oath. At the same time, another federal judge, James Boasberg, from Washington, threatened Wednesday with voluntarily disobeying an order that issued on March 15 to stop deportation flights to El Salvador, in which Abrego García was traveling.
Van Hollen made reference to all these judicial orders and rebuked the Trump government for not complying with them. “As federal courts have said, we have to bring Abrego García home to protect their constitutional rights to due process. And it is also important that people understand that this case is not just a man. It is about protecting the constitutional rights of all those who reside in the United States,” he said.
