U.S. senator traveling to El Salvador says he was denied to go to Kilmar Abrego Garcia

U.S. Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said Wednesday that authorities in El Salvador denied his trip to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an Salvador man who was wrongly deported and detained in the country’s infamous prison.

Van Hollen, who arrived in Central American countries on Wednesday morning, said he would seek to meet with senior El Salvador officials to ensure Abrego Garcia’s release.

But Van Hollen told reporter El Salvador’s vice president Felix Ulloa told the senator that he could not authorize access or call Abrego Garcia.

Van Hollen, a member of the U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Ulloa also told him that El Salvador did not release Abrego Garcia because the United States was paying to put him in jail.

“Why is the US government paying the El Salvador government a person who was illegally kidnapped and did not commit a crime to lock in a person?” Van Hollen said.

The El Salvador government did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Van Horen’s visit.

“Management Errors” in the United States

After Washington admitted that Abrego Garcia was deported for “administrative errors”, the U.S. Supreme Court insisted on Judge Paula Xinis’ order directing the government to “promote” Abrego Garcia’s return.

At a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele said he had no plans to return to Abrego Garcia. Earlier Monday, the Department of Homeland Security said in court documents that it had “no power to force” to bring Abreg Garcia back.

On Tuesday, Sinis said she would not immediately announce the administration’s contempt for the court, but there was no evidence that the Trump administration was trying to retrieve Abreg Garcia and said she would not tolerate “game skills or grand people.”

Along with Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration expelled hundreds of people, most of whom were Venezuelans, said to be members of the gang, which was expelled from El Salvador without evidence and without trial under the Foreign Enemy Act of 1798.

The lawyer said that since he arrived at the prison, the government has not released the names of the incarcerated people who have not contacted the lawyer or any contact with the outside world.

In March, the judge said flights carried by immigrants prosecuted under the Alien Enemies Act should return to the United States, Buckley wrote on X that it was too late, and along with the images, the man was driven out of the plane in the dark.

Possible contempt charges by U.S. officials: Judge

A federal judge said Wednesday that officials in the Trump administration could face criminal prosecution for tempt to confront court violations last month’s order, which ceases the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants under the wartime law Alien Enemy Act.

Abrego Garcia, 29, left El Salvador at the age of 16, evading gang-related violence, his lawyer said. He received a protection order in 2019 to continue living in the United States. According to Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, he has never been charged with any crime, and they deny that the U.S. Department of Justice allegations are that he is a member of the criminal gang MS-13.

Van Hollen stressed at a press conference that neither the El Salvador administration nor the Trump administration provided any evidence that Abrego Garcia was a member of the gang.

U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth will meet El Salvadorian Defense Secretary Rene Merino on Wednesday at the Pentagon.