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Sen. Chris Van Hollen was blocked Wednesday from visiting Kilmar Abrego Garcia at the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) mega-prison complex after the Democrat traveled to El Salvador to push for the release of the illegal migrant and purported MS-13 member.
Van Hollen (D-Md.), 66, met with the Central American nation’s vice president, Félix Ulloa, and publicly pleaded for Abrego Garcia to be set free.
“They should just let him go,” Van Hollen complained to reporters after the meeting. “I promised them [Abrego Garcia’s family] that I would do everything I could to get him out.”
“I won’t stop trying,” he added. “This is an unsustainable and unjust moment. So it cannot continue this way.”
Meanwhile, fresh revelations emerged Wednesday that Abrego Garcia’s wife — who has pushed for his release — pursued a domestic violence restraining order against him in 2021, alleging that he ripped off her shirt, punched her and scratched her.
White House officials needled Van Hollen over his advocacy for Abrego Garcia while his own constituents grapple with migrant crime.
“The criminal illegal immigrant is already home — he’s a Salvadoran citizen,” the Trump administration said in a statement. “… [W]here was his [Van Hollen’s] concern for Maryland constituents put at risk by the many other illegal immigrants allowed to roam free until now?”
The White House noted the case of Rachel Morin, who was savagely raped and killed by an illegal immigrant in 2023. On Monday, Victor Martinez-Hernandez was found guilty by a jury of first-degree rape, first-degree premeditated murder, third-degree sexual assault and kidnapping.
“While the conviction of Rachel Morin’s killer will not return Rachel to her family where she rightfully belongs, this verdict brings a measure of justice that they so deserve,” Van Hollen said in a statement Tuesday, the day after the verdict.
The Trump administration also highlighted nine other cases in which migrants accused of sex crimes, gang activity and attempted murder, among other offenses, had been arrested in Van Hollen’s home state.
“A US federal court judge said that the Trump administration did not have evidence to support the claim that he had ever been part of MS-13,” Van Hollen claimed during his visit. “In fact, Mr. Abrego Garcia is legally in the United States.”
Court documents indicate that Abrego Garcia illegally entered the US in 2011. In 2019, a federal judge blocked him from being deported back to his home country of El Salvador amid concerns he could face persecution from groups like the Barrio 18 gang.
“I want to emphasize that President Trump and our Attorney General Pam Bondi and the vice president of the United States are lying when they say that Abrego Garcia has been charged with a crime or is part of MS-13,” he added. “That is a lie.”
The Trump administration claimed in court documents that Abrego Garcia is “confirmed to be a ranking member of the MS-13 gang by a proven and reliable source,” something his family disputes.
Last week, the Supreme Court instructed the Trump administration to take steps “to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to” the Latin American country.
At the same time, the high court ruled that lower courts must show “deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
After that order, the Trump administration declined to pressure El Salvador to release Abrego Garcia and insisted that they are complying with the Supreme Court’s ruling because they have taken steps to “facilitate” his return if El Salvador ever releases him.
Trump, 78, welcomed El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to the White House on Monday, and the US ally scoffed at the notion that he’d send Abrego Garcia back to the US.
“I hope you are not suggesting that I smuggle terrorists into the United States,” Bukele, 43, told reporters while sitting alongside Trump in the Oval Office. “Of course, I’m not going to do it.
“The question is preposterous,” Bukele added. “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
Trump administration officials have countered that they don’t have the power to bring him back because Abrego Garcia is an El Salvadoran national imprisoned in his home country.
