Van Hollen in El Salvador: 'Open the door of CECOT and let this innocent man walk out'

SAN SALVADOR – Sen. Chris Van Hollen demanded Wednesday that Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele open the doors of a notorious Central American prison and free a Maryland father who was wrongly deported by the Trump administration.

“I’m not asking him to smuggle Mr. (Kilmar) Abrego Garcia into the United States,” the Maryland senator said, standing at the side of a busy road not far from the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador. “I’m simply asking him to open the door of CECOT and let this innocent man walk out.”

Van Hollen, who traveled to El Salvador to discuss Abrego Garcia's case with Salvadoran officials, described the union sheet metal worker and father of three as “a man who was illegally abducted from the United States and charged with no crime.”

“This is an unsustainable and unjust moment,” he said.

Abrego Garcia, 29, was detained in March by U.S. immigration officials near his home in Beltsville, Maryland, and deported to El Salvador three days later despite a prior court order barring his deportation to the Central American country.

U.S. officials contend Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 criminal gang but have provided no evidence to the courts to support the allegation. Government attorneys acknowledged in court documents that he was deported by mistake but say they have no authority to free him because he is imprisoned in a foreign country.

Bukele said during a visit to the White House on Monday that he would not release Abrego Garcia and called the suggestion “preposterous."

Abrego Garcia’s family has sued the U.S. government demanding his return. The U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration on April 11 to begin the process of bringing him back to the U.S.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis of Maryland admonished government attorneys during a hearing on Tuesday for failing to provide evidence of what they are doing to return Abrego Garcia. She ordered the Trump administration to provide sworn testimony on what steps it is taking to free him.

Abrego Garcia is being held in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. The prison has been criticized for its harsh and dangerous conditions, as well as its rough treatment of prisoners.

On Wednesday, Van Hollen arrived in the Salvadoran capital on a bright, breezy day and was quickly ushered through a diplomatic exit from the airport.

Speaking at a hastily convened news conference, the senator told journalists he had met with Salvadoran Vice President Felix Ulloa, but conceded that he had made little progress in his efforts to bring Abrego Garcia home to Maryland.

Ulloa told the senator he couldn’t arrange access to visit Abrego Garcia in prison, nor could he set up a phone call with the prisoner.

“He said ‘Well, you need to make earlier provisions to go visit CECOT,’" Van Hollen said. "I said I’m not interested in taking a tour of CECOT. I just want to meet with Mr. Abrego Garcia, but he said he was not able to make that happen.”

Asked if he knows whether Abrego Garcia is still alive, Van Hollen said he can’t be sure.

“I don’t know about his health status, that’s exactly why I wanted to meet with him directly,” Van Hollen said. “That’s why I want to talk with him on the phone, that’s why I wanted to arrange a phone call with his wife.”

Van Hollen said he nonetheless plans to continue pushing to meet with, and free, Abrego Garcia.

“I’m going to keep pressing with my remaining time here, and I will keep pressing beyond that,” he said.

Van Hollen spent much of the 30-minute press conference reiterating points he has made in previous days. The senator repeated several times that President Donald Trump and administration officials have lied and misled the courts about Abrego Garcia. They have claimed he has been charged with a crime, is a gang member and is a terrorist, Van Hollen said, none of which has been proven in court.

He urged the governments of the United States and El Salvador to work together to bring his constituent home.

“I’m asking the government of El Salvador and the president and vice president of El Salvador not to keep a man who was illegally abducted from the United States and charged with no crime to remain in CECOT when as a sovereign country they have the power to let him go and let him go now," he said.

While he may be the first member of Congress to travel to El Salvador on Abrego Garcia's behalf, "there will be more."

Two House Democrats – Reps. Robert Garcia of California and Maxwell Frost of Florida – have requested that an official Congressional delegation visit to the prison in El Salvador where Abrego Garcia is being held.

Contributing: Eduardo Cuevas and Riley Beggin