Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen was finally able to meet with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was erroneously deported last month to his native El Salvador, where he has been held incommunicado in that country’s megaprison for terrorists.
The meeting followed two days of attempts by Van Hollen to see Abrego Garcia, including an attempt earlier when soldiers turned away him and Chris Newman — the lawyer for Abrego Garcia’s wife and his mother — at a checkpoint about 3 kilometers away from the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, where Abrego Garcia is being held.
Van Hollen said that while the soldiers allowed other cars to pass, they said they had “been ordered not to allow us to proceed any further than that point.”
It is unclear what led to the the change in policy, but Van Hollen posted a photo on social media of him talking with Abrego Garcia.
“I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance,” Van Hollen said in his post. “I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.”
Abrego Garcia, seen in the photos in jeans, a checkered shirt and a Kansas City Chiefs ballcap, appears healthy. It was a different look than the shaved heads, baggy white shorts and T-shirts and Crocs or sandals that CECOT inmates are wearing in most photos of the facility.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, left, meets with Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen in El Salvador. (Photo courtesy Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele)
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who insisted during a White House meeting ealier this week with Trump that his country had no intention of releasing Abrego Garcia, trolled Van Hollen with his own social media posts of the meeting shortly before the senator’s.
Bukele mockingly referred to Abrego Garcia “miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture,’ now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador.”
“Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody,” Bukele posted.
Van Hollen unsuccessfully sought a meeting when Bukele was in Washington, and again when he traveled to El Salvador. He was able to meet instead with Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa, who denied his requests to either visit or speak on the phone with Abrego Garcia.
The Maryland Democrat arrived in the Central American country in an effort to help bring Abrego Garcia, whom the Justice Department admitted in court was deported in error, back to the United States, or at least check on his wellness.
A U.S. immigration judge issued a protective order in 2019 allowing Abrego Garcia, an undocumented immigrant in the United States, to remain in the country because sending him back to his home country would put him in grave danger from gangs there that he said caused him to flee in the first place.
Van Hollen said that since Abrego Garcia was sent to CECOT, he had not spoken with anyone outside of the prison walls until their meeting. “This inability to communicate with his lawyers is a violation of international law,” Van Hollen had said earlier.
The senator pointed out that El Salvador is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights.
“That covenant says, and I quote, ‘A detained or imprisoned person shall be entitled to communicate and consult with his legal counsel,’” he said.
Van Hollen also said he met with the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador and they discussed “the full range of important bilateral relations between the United States and El Salvador.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt and other Republicans have criticized Van Hollen for making the trip, repeating the accusation that Abrego Garcia is a gang member.
Representatives for the White House and DHS did not respond to messages seeking comment.
Appeals court slams administration’s inaction
Meanwhile, Abrego Garcia’s case continues to work its way through U.S. courts as a flashpoint conflict between two branches of government that has led to the precipice of a constitutional crisis.
A federal appeals court panel dismantled the administration’s latest appeal, saying the government had done “essentially nothing” to attempt to return Abrego Garcia in compliance with last week’s Supreme Court order.
A three-judge panel for the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit said the executive branch was due deference in conducting foreign policy, but that the administration’s inaction in seeking Abrego Garcia’s return amounted to defiance of a judicial order.
The unanimous ruling was written by 4th Circuit Chief Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who was nominated by Republican President Ronald Reagan. The other two judges, Robert Bruce King and Stephanie Thacker, were nominated by Democratic presidents Bill Clinton and Barack Obama.
“The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done,” the panel wrote. “This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.”
The appeals ruling responded to the government’s appeal of U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis’ order this week for the Trump administration to offer evidence on how it has sought to help with Abrego Garcia’s release from CECOT.
The U.S. Supreme Court ruled last week that the Trump administration must “facilitate” — but stopped short of requiring — his return to the United States.
In unusually frank language, the 4th Circuit panel warned the conflict between the executive and judicial branches threatened the foundation of U.S. government.
“If today the Executive claims the right to deport without due process and in disregard of court orders, what assurance will there be tomorrow that it will not deport American citizens and then disclaim responsibility to bring them home?” the court asked. “And what assurance shall there be that the Executive will not train its broad discretionary powers upon its political enemies? The threat, even if not the actuality, would always be present.”
Near the end of the order, the panel urged the administration to obey the judicial branch.
“We yet cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos,” the judges wrote. “This case presents their unique chance to vindicate that value and to summon the best that is within us while there is still time.”
Neither country taking action
The 4th Circuit panel pointed out that the leaders of both the United States and El Salvador claimed they had no power to return Abrego Garcia.
“We are told that neither government has the power to act,” they wrote. “The result will be to leave matters generally and Abrego Garcia specifically in an interminable limbo without recourse to law of any sort.”
During a White House visit this week, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said he would not bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States.
The Trump administration has admitted in court that Abrego Garcia’s deportation stemmed from an “administrative error.” The administration continues to accuse him of being part of the gang MS-13, despite no charges or convictions of any criminal offenses against him, including gang-related crimes.
– Jacob Fischler and Steve Crane contributed to this report.
Maryland Matters is part of States Newsroom, a nonprofit news network supported by grants and a coalition of donors as a 501c(3) public charity. Maryland Matters maintains editorial independence. Contact Editor Steve Crane for questions: [email protected].
