Apr 15, 2025 - Politics & Policy

Dem senator traveling to El Salvador to visit mistakenly deported constituent

Sareen Habeshian

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen speaks to protesters during the Stand-Up for Science rally in Washington D.C., Friday, March 7, 2025. (Photo by Dominic Gwinn / Middle East Images / Middle East Images via AFP) (Photo by DOMINIC GWINN/Middle East Images/AFP via Getty Images) — Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) speaks to protesters during the Stand-Up for Science rally in Washington, D.C., on March 7. Photo: Dominic Gwinn/Middle East Images via AFP via Getty Images

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he will travel to El Salvador on Wednesday to check on his constituent, a Maryland man mistakenly deported there to a high-security prison for terrorists.

The big picture: Although the Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia's return, the U.S. government has so far resisted.

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele too said he can't return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., nor will he release him within El Salvador.

Zoom in: Van Hollen on Monday had requested a meeting with Bukele while he was in the U.S. to discuss Abrego Garcia's return, saying if his constituent was not returned by midweek, he would travel to check on him.

The Maryland senator on Tuesday called Abrego Garcia's detention an "abduction and unlawful deportation," noting that U.S. federal courts have ordered his safe return.
"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," he added.

What they're saying: Tricia McLaughlin, assistant secretary for public affairs with the Department of Homeland Security, criticized Van Hollen's push to get Abrego Garcia back in a statement to Axios.

She said the senator "has done more to bring an MS-13 gang member, human trafficker, and illegal alien back to Maryland than he has to help keep his American constituents safe or advocate for the victims of these vicious gangs like MS-13."
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian national legally living in Maryland, has not been charged with any gang-related crimes.

The White House and Department of Justice did not immediately respond to Axios' request for comment Tuesday evening.

Zoom out: Two members of House Democratic leadership are trying to send an official congressional delegation to the El Salvadorian prison where the Trump administration is sending deportees.

Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) are seeking to conduct a welfare check on Abrego Garcia as well as others being held at Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT).

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Dem senator traveling to El Salvador to visit mistakenly deported constituent

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