Senator again denied entry to El Salvador prison to visit mistakenly deported man
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Sen. Chris Van Hollen speaks during a press conference in El Salvador on April 16. Photo: Marvin Recinos / AFP via Getty Images
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said Thursday he was denied entry for a second time to a high-security prison for terrorists in El Salvador where his Maryland constituent is being held.
The big picture: The senator has been seeking to speak to and check on Kilmar Armando Ábrego García as the Trump administration evades courts' orders to facilitate the legal U.S. resident's release.
- Ábrego García, a Salvadorian national legally living in Maryland, has been accused by the Trump administration of being a member of the MS-13 gang, though he has not been charged of gang-related crimes.
- The Trump administration is "trying to make this case about Kilmar all about MS-13, when, in fact, the judge in the case has said they've not provided substantial or any significant evidence to back up their claim," Van Hollen said Thursday.
Driving the news: Ábrego García has had no communication with anyone outside Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) since he was "illegally abducted," the senator said at a press conference.
- "This ability to communicate with his lawyers is in violation of international law," Van Hollen said, adding that El Salvador is party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
- "If the government of El Salvador remains complicit in the illegal detention of Mr. Ábrego García in CECOT prison, then there will be, I think, actions proposed certainly until we resolve this very important issue," he said.
What he's saying: "Our goal was very simple today, which was to check on the health and well being of Kilmar," Van Hollen said.
- But he and Ábrego García's family lawyer were stopped at a checkpoint outside CECOT.
- "We were told by the soldiers that they've been ordered not to allow us to proceed any further than that point," the senator said.
Context: A day earlier, the senator met with El Salvador Vice President Félix Ulloa, who denied him entry to CECOT, saying the senator needed to make accommodations earlier.
- Ulloa also denied Van Hollen a phone call with Ábrego García, as well as contact with his wife, mother and lawyer, the senator said.
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