Washington — Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Sunday that El Salvador “tried really hard” to keep him from meeting Kilmar Abrego Garcia before the government reversed course late last week.
“I think they realized that was not a good look at the end of the day,” Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, told “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national who lived in Maryland, was deported to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison last month as part of a White House effort, though the administration later admitted in court that he was mistakenly included in the deportation.
The case has risen to the forefront in recent weeks amid simmering tensions between the federal judiciary and the Trump administration’s broad crackdown on illegal immigration.
Van Hollen visited El Salvador last week, where he met with Abrego Garcia on Thursday after he claimed his attempts had been repeatedly denied by the Salvadoran government.
Van Hollen stated that he held press conferences in El Salvador, where he argued that the government was “violating international law by not allowing anyone to reach him,” and that “they realized that was a bad look.”
After Van Hollen was granted permission to meet with Abrego Garcia, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele was the first to announce the meeting, writing in a post on X that Abrego Garcia was “now sipping margaritas with Sen.
Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador,” along with photos of the two men sitting at a table with drinks that resemble margaritas. Later, the president wrote, “I love chess.”
Van Hollen said of the Salvadoran government, “they go to great lengths to deceive people,” describing how drinks were brought to the table while photos were taken during his meeting with Abrego Garcia, and that “no one touched them.”
“The reality is, if you look at the photos when I first sat down and the ones at the end, you can see that that was all staged,” Van Hollen told the audience. “They’re trying to create the impression that, you know, this is a guy in paradise, when in fact he’s been in one of the most notorious prisons in the world.”
Abrego Garcia came to the United States illegally in 2011 and was arrested in 2019. When he was released from immigration custody, an immigration judge granted him withholding of removal, which prevents the government from deporting him back to El Salvador.
Van Hollen confirmed on Sunday that Abrego Garcia has been transferred from CECOT to a facility in Santa Ana.
In an update to the federal district court in Maryland on Sunday, a senior State Department official stated that Abrego Garcia informed the senator about his transfer to Centro Industrial about eight days prior to their meeting.
“Abrego García told Sen. Van Hollen that he had been placed in the administrative building of Centro Industrial, in a room of his own with a bed and furniture, and that he was not in a cell,” the court filing quoted Michael Kozak as saying.
Trump administration officials have since admitted that Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador was a “administrative error.”
Nonetheless, there has been a heated legal battle over Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States. The administration was ordered earlier this month to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return from El Salvador, but the Supreme Court ruled that the judge’s decision only required the government to “facilitate” his release, and that the scope should be defined.
On Thursday, a federal appeals court denied the Trump administration’s request to halt the district judge’s order, stating that the government’s claims in the case should be “shocking” to all Americans.
Meanwhile, the White House and Bukele have stated unequivocally that they do not intend to bring Abrego Garcia back, despite the orders, and Trump administration officials have repeatedly claimed that he is a member of the MS-13 gang.
Van Hollen emphasized that the administration has not presented evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or other terrorist activities, urging officials to “put up or shut up in court.”
“Go to court, stop tweeting, and put up or shut up in front of the judges,” Van Hollen suggested.
The Maryland Democrat stated that he did not travel to El Salvador to litigate the details of Abrego Garcia’s case, but rather “to make sure that he was still alive and check on his health.” But he argued that the case is much larger than one man.
“This is not a case about just one man whose constitutional rights are being ignored and disrespected, because when you trample on the constitutional rights of one man — as the courts have all said is happening in this case — you threaten the constitutional rights of every American,” Van Hollen told CNN.