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A US senator has met a man who Trump administration officials have acknowledged was deported in error from Maryland to a mega-prison in El Salvador.
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen posted photos with Kilmar Ábrego García, as the administration continues to resist his return to the US despite yet another court ruling against the government on Thursday.
After the meeting, which appeared to take place in a hotel, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said the detainee would remain in the country’s custody.
The White House has accused Mr Ábrego García of being a member of the transnational Salvadoran gang MS-13, a designated foreign terrorist organisation, which his lawyer denies.
In a post on his social media site Truth Social the morning after the meeting, Trump said Van Hollen “looked like a fool yesterday standing in El Salvador begging for attention from the Fake News Media, or anyone”.
The visit came amid an escalating showdown between the US president and the courts over the case.
A federal court on Thursday ruled against the Trump administration in a case that could force officials to testify under oath about the deportation.
In a scathing judgement, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals called the administration’s handling of the situation “shocking”.
“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,” wrote conservative Judge Harvie Wilkinson III, one of three judges on the panel.
The government “claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done”, Judge Wilkinson 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.”
Why, the judge wrote, should the government “not make what was wrong, right?”
Mr Ábrego García’s lawyers are suing the US government for sending him to a mega-prison in El Salvador in March, in what the Trump administration has admitted was an error.
What next in legal fight over El Salvador deportations?
The Supreme Court has ordered the US government to “facilitate” his return.
Photos shared by Van Hollen and Mr Bukele are the first sight of the Maryland resident since his deportation.
“I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance,” the Democratic senator posted on social media.
“I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.”
Before the meeting, the senator said he was stopped by armed guards on his way to Cecot, the maximum-security prison where Mr Ábrego García has been detained.
Van Hollen arrived in the country on Wednesday hoping to secure the release of Mr Ábrego García, who had been living in Maryland.
The senator did not offer an update on Mr Ábrego García’s status in his social media posts, but said more information would be released upon his return to the US.
Mr Ábrego García’s wife celebrated the news and said her “prayers have been answered”.
She said her family still has many questions and will continue fighting for his release.
During his trip, Van Hollen said he also met the country’s vice-president and asked that they open the doors so Mr Ábrego García could leave the prison, a request he says was rejected.
On X, El Salvador’s president reposted photos of the senator meeting Mr Ábrego García and appeared to poke fun at social media speculation that the inmate had died in custody.
President Bukele commented that Mr Ábrego García had “miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture'” in the “tropical paradise of El Salvador”.
What we know about MS-13 allegations
“Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody,” the president added.
The White House called the visit “disgusting” and said it showed that Democrats side with “an illegal alien MS-13 terrorist” while President Trump stands with law-abiding Americans.
Mr Ábrego García’s lawyers deny he has any gang affiliation and maintain he has never been charged with, nor convicted of any crime.
Mr Ábrego García was living in Maryland before he was deported on 15 March with scores of Salvadorans and Venezuelans to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot) in El Salvador.
Maryland Judge Paula Xinis ruled that Mr Ábrego García’s removal from the country breached a 2019 court order that had granted him legal protection from deportation.
After the meeting, which appeared to take place in a hotel, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said the detainee would remain in the country’s custody.
The White House has accused Mr Ábrego García of being a member of the transnational Salvadoran gang MS-13, a designated foreign terrorist organisation, which his lawyer denies.
In a post on his social media site Truth Social the morning after the meeting, Trump said Van Hollen “looked like a fool yesterday standing in El Salvador begging for attention from the Fake News Media, or anyone”.
The visit came amid an escalating showdown between the US president and the courts over the case.
A federal court on Thursday ruled against the Trump administration in a case that could force officials to testify under oath about the deportation.
In a scathing judgement, the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals called the administration’s handling of the situation “shocking”.
“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,” wrote conservative Judge Harvie Wilkinson III, one of three judges on the panel.
The government “claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done”, Judge Wilkinson 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.”
Why, the judge wrote, should the government “not make what was wrong, right?”
Mr Ábrego García’s lawyers are suing the US government for sending him to a mega-prison in El Salvador in March, in what the Trump administration has admitted was an error.
What next in legal fight over El Salvador deportations?
The Supreme Court has ordered the US government to “facilitate” his return.
Photos shared by Van Hollen and Mr Bukele are the first sight of the Maryland resident since his deportation.
“I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance,” the Democratic senator posted on social media.
“I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.”
Before the meeting, the senator said he was stopped by armed guards on his way to Cecot, the maximum-security prison where Mr Ábrego García has been detained.
Van Hollen arrived in the country on Wednesday hoping to secure the release of Mr Ábrego García, who had been living in Maryland.
The senator did not offer an update on Mr Ábrego García’s status in his social media posts, but said more information would be released upon his return to the US.
Mr Ábrego García’s wife celebrated the news and said her “prayers have been answered”.
She said her family still has many questions and will continue fighting for his release.
During his trip, Van Hollen said he also met the country’s vice-president and asked that they open the doors so Mr Ábrego García could leave the prison, a request he says was rejected.
On X, El Salvador’s president reposted photos of the senator meeting Mr Ábrego García and appeared to poke fun at social media speculation that the inmate had died in custody.
President Bukele commented that Mr Ábrego García had “miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture'” in the “tropical paradise of El Salvador”.
What we know about MS-13 allegations
“Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody,” the president added.
The White House called the visit “disgusting” and said it showed that Democrats side with “an illegal alien MS-13 terrorist” while President Trump stands with law-abiding Americans.
Mr Ábrego García’s lawyers deny he has any gang affiliation and maintain he has never been charged with, nor convicted of any crime.
Mr Ábrego García was living in Maryland before he was deported on 15 March with scores of Salvadorans and Venezuelans to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot) in El Salvador.
Maryland Judge Paula Xinis ruled that Mr Ábrego García’s removal from the country breached a 2019 court order that had granted him legal protection from deportation.
Trump administration officials have conceded the deportation was an “administrative error” although the White House insists there was no mistake.
The Republican president’s allies have argued the deportation is making good on his campaign promise to keep Americans safe.
They have cited a restraining order filed by Mr Ábrego García’s wife on 5 May 2021, in which she alleged four instances of domestic violence against her by him.
Ms Vasquez Sura told Newsweek on Wednesday that she and her husband had worked through their difficulties, including by counselling.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at a briefing on Wednesday: “He [Mr Ábrego García] will never live in the United States of America.”
She was joined by the mother of a Maryland woman, Rachel Morin, who was murdered in August 2023 by an alleged fugitive from El Salvador, in a separate case.
BBC News
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