Chris Van Hollen Meets With Abrego Garcia in El Salvador

Senator Chris Van Hollen mentioned on Thursday night time that he had met in San Salvador with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man whose wrongful deportation to El Salvador final month has grow to be a flashpoint within the immigration debate and fueled a standoff between the Trump administration and the courts.

Mr. Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat and a member of the Senate International Relations Committee, shared a photograph of the 2 males talking on Thursday night, hours after the senator had been denied entry to the jail the place Mr. Abrego Garcia was being held.

The sudden assembly came about at a lodge in San Salvador, based on images shared by the senator’s workplace late Thursday. Within the pictures, Mr. Abrego Garcia was wearing plainclothes and sat for a dialog with Mr. Van Hollen. El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, mentioned on social media that Mr. Abrego Garcia would stay in his nation’s custody.

The images shared by Mr. Van Hollen and others posted by Mr. Bukele had been the primary public glimpses of Mr. Abrego Garcia since his deportation in March, which the Trump administration admitted in courtroom was an error. The Supreme Courtroom has ordered the administration to “facilitate” his return, however a federal decide overseeing the case has scolded the federal government for doing “nothing” to conform.

“Our goal at this time was very simple,” Mr. Van Hollen mentioned in an interview on Thursday, earlier than the assembly with Mr. Abrego Garcia. “It was merely to have the ability to go see if Kilmar Abrego Garcia is doing OK. I imply, no one has heard something about his situation since he was illegally kidnapped from the US. He’s completely past attain.”