Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) is heading to El Salvador to see how Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged MS-13 gang member currently imprisoned there, is faring.
Garcia, a Maryland resident, was detained in March, and sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador. He has been there since, Fox News reported.
“It should be a priority of the U.S. government to secure his safe release, which is why tomorrow I am traveling to El Salvador,” Van Hollen said in a statement. “My hope is to visit Kilmar and check on his wellbeing and to hold constructive conversations with government officials around his release.”
Garcia entered the U.S. illegally and was permitted to stay in 2019, per Fox News.
The Trump administration has accused Garcia of being a member of MS-13, something his attorneys have denied.
According to CBS News, which cites court documents, “ICE admitted that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was due to an ‘administrative error,’ but initially did not take action to return him to the U.S. Abrego Garcia has no criminal record and has never been charged with a crime in the U.S. or El Salvador.”
The Supreme Court ruled last week that the government must “facilitate,” but not necessarily “effectuate,” Garcia’s return, per the Daily Wire.
White House aide Stephen Miller denied claims that Garcia was deported by mistake. He added the withholding order Garcia received six years ago is no longer valid because the Trump administration has since designated MS-13 as a foreign terror organization.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said he would not send Garcia back.
“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele said. “I don’t have the power to return him.”
Van Hollen said Garcia endured an “abduction and unlawful deportation.” He added the federal courts “ordered the safe return.”
“We must urgently continue working to return Kilmar safely home to Maryland,” Van Hollen said.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt countered by questioning the priorities of the Democratic Party.
“It’s mind-boggling, the priorities of the modern-day Democratic Party. I think it’s atrocious that to have Democrats in Congress on Capitol Hill, who swear an oath to protect their constituents and to serve them in Washington, D.C., spending more time defending illegal immigrant gang members than their own constituents,” she said.
