Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, was denied a visit with a Salvadoran migrant and accused MS-13 member who was deported to El Salvador, after flying to the country on Wednesday morning.
Van Hollen intended to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, who was deported to the El Salvadoran mega prison “Terrorism Confinement Center” (CECOT) for being an alleged MS-13 gang member, though his attorneys maintain he does not have any gang ties.
Van Hollen spoke to reporters from El Salvador on Wednesday afternoon, when he vowed to continue pressing for access to Abrego Garcia.
He met with Vice President Félix Augusto Antonio Ulloa Garay because President Nayib Armando Bukele Ortez was out of the country, though Van Hollen said he was grateful to speak about the case of Abrego Garcia.
LIBERAL SENATOR SAYS HE IS FLYING TO VISIT DEPORTED MIGRANT IN PRISON, OTHER DEMS PLANNING TRIPS
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) flew to El Salvador to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is being housed at a maximum security prison for terrorists, only to be told he could meet with the accused MS-13 member. (Kevin Dietsch)
“I asked the vice president if I could meet with Mr. Abrego Garcia, and he said, ‘well, you need to make earlier provisions to go visit CECOT,’” Van Hollen said.
He told Ulloa that he was not interested in taking a tour of CECOT and that he just wanted to meet with Abrego Garcia.
“He said he was not able to make that happen,” Van Hollen said of Ulloa.
When Van Hollen asked if he could come back next week to see Abrego Garcia, Ulloa told him he could not promise that, either. Ulloa also told the U.S. senator that he could not even arrange for him, or Abrego Garcia’s family to speak with the inmate over the phone.
EL SALVADOR’S BUKELE SAYS US CANNOT ‘FREE CRIMINALS AND THINK CRIME IS GOING TO GO DOWN MAGICALLY’
Justice Department attorneys on Friday said they are unaware of illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts after he was deported to a Salvadoran prison last month. (Fox News)
The senator said the situation in El Salvador is “unjust,” and he accused the Trump administration of lying about Abrego Garcia.
“I am going to keep pressing,” Van Hollen said. “I will keep pressing in my remaining time here, and I will keep pressing beyond that if necessary.”
The Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court’s decision to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia from CECOT where federal officials have sent hundreds of suspected criminals and gang members.
The Trump administration agreed to clear any administrative obstacles keeping Abrego Garcia from coming back to the U.S., but Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that returning him is “up to El Salvador. If they want to return him. That’s not up to us.”
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U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that it is up to El Salvador to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia. (AP Photo/Marta Lavandier)
This has caused no small outrage from Democrats, with Van Hollen being the first to announce plans to travel to El Salvador to help secure Abrego Garcia’s release.
“Mr. Abrego Garcia was illegally abducted by the Trump Admin and, by their own admission, wrongly deported to El Salvador,” Van Hollen on Tuesday.
“He shouldn’t have to spend another second away from his family,” he went on. “I’m flying to El Salvador tomorrow morning to check on his condition and discuss his return.”
EL SALVADOR’S BUKELE SAYS US CANNOT ‘FREE CRIMINALS AND THINK CRIME IS GOING TO GO DOWN MAGICALLY’
Senator Chris Van Hollen said he plans to continue to press for access to Kilmar Abrego Garcia while in El Salvador. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Van Hollen is not the only Democrat discussing visiting Abrego Garcia and other imprisoned migrants. Far left Reps. Maxwell Frost, D-Florida, and Robert Garcia, D-California, issued a joint letter on Tuesday in which they said they are “prepared to travel as soon as possible.”
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In their letter, which was sent to House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer, R-Kentucky, on Tuesday, Frost and Garcia requested authorization to send a congressional delegation to visit CECOT to “conduct a welfare check” on Garcia and other deported migrants at the prison.
Fox News Digital’s Peter Pinedo contributed to this report.
