Dem Senator Van Hollen meets, shakes hands with Abrego Garcia; El Salvador says inmate will remain in custody
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who flew to El Salvador this week to meet with deported illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia before being denied multiple times, was granted his request on Thursday night.
"I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar," Van Hollen said in a post on X. "Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return."
Garcia, a 29-year-old illegal immigrant living in Maryland, was deported to the El Salvadoran megaprison "Terrorism Confinement Center" (CECOT) last month, and officials acknowledged in court his deportation was an administrative error, although now some top Trump officials say he was correctly removed and contend he's a member of the notorious MS-13 gang. Both a federal court and the Supreme Court have ordered the Trump administration to "facilitate" his release and return to the U.S. for proper deportation proceedings.
Van Hollen announced on Tuesday he was going to El Salvador to visit Garcia on Wednesday, and other Democratic lawmakers announced they planned to visit him as well.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia meets with Sen. Van Hollen (X / @ChrisVanHollen)
But when Van Hollen arrived, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele was out of the country, and the senator from Maryland met with Vice President Félix Augusto Antonio Ulloa Garay instead.
"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.
....His goal of meeting with Abrego Garcia was later granted, and images of the two men show them sitting at a table in the tropics with water and coffee. Other photos shared by Bukele showed water glasses with seasoned rims and cherry garnishes, and Sen. Van Hollen shaking hands with Abrego Garcia....
In another post, Bukele wrote, "Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody."....
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So a US Senator could not Get the President of El Salvador to release a criminal from prison in El Salvador but the President of El Salvador said no. I'd say the US tried to help the return of Mr. Garcia. The SCOTUS ruling has been satisfied. To bad this same Maryland senator could not pick up a phone and call the family of Maryland resident Rachel Morin when she was brutally raped and murdered by another El Salvadoran illegal immigrants in Maryland. This should be political suicide.
