Democrat Senator says he'll go to El Salvador to free deported 'Maryland man' Trump says is a gangster
A Democratic senator announced he would travel to El Salvador to free the 'unjustly' deported Maryland man accused by the Trump administration of being a criminal.
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen vowed to travel to El Salvador to discuss the release of 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was deported in defiance of a 2019 order intended to spare him from persecution.
Van Hollen sent a letter to El Salvador's ambassador in the United States to request a meeting with President Bukele.
The Democratic lawmaker added that if he did not hear back by mid-week, he would travel to El Salvador to 'check on his condition and discuss his release.'
'I saw the comments of President Bukele, and I look forward to meeting with him. I've requested to meet with him; I reached out to the ambassador here to ask to meet while he's here,' Van Hollen said.
'I do intend to go to El Salvador to discuss the release of this individual who is illegally detained,' he continued.
'And I believe the president of El Salvador will recognize why it is important to allow him to return to the USA, because it is absolutely unjust and illegal to have this Marylander detained for one more day in this notorious prison in El Salvador.'
'This is an administration who has lied about Mr. Abrego Garcia,' Van Hollen said. 'The Vice President of the United States tweeted out that he had a criminal record, that was a lie!'
Senator Chris Van Hollen vowed to travel to El Salvador to discuss the release of 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was deported in defiance of a 2019 order intended to spare him from persecution
On March 12, Garcia was pulled over outside of an IKEA in Baltimore with his son
'So, all the President of El Salvador has to do now is hand over and release an innocent man and let him come home to his family,' Van Hollen said
'They're just lying, they've gotten caught lying, they don't want to admit it,' Van Hollen continued.
'They have an obligation to bring him home, but I will say the President of El Salvador should not now take it upon himself to say that he is detaining him for one more day.'
Van Hollen concluded that he 'understood' that the attorney general said a plane would be provided to bring him home.
'So, all the President of El Salvador has to do now is hand over and release an innocent man and let him come home to his family,' he concluded.
The deportation of the father of three, who is currently being held in a 'notorious' prison in El Salvador, has been acknowledged by Justice Department Officials as a mistake.
On March 12, Garcia was pulled over outside of an IKEA in Baltimore with his son, according to court documents obtained by NBC News.
Garcia called his wife from jail and said authorities had been questioning him on MS-13 and queried his family's visits to a restaurant serving Mexican and Salvadoran food.
'He would repeat the truth again and again - that he was not in a gang,' Vasquez Sura said.
The deportation of the father of three, who is currently being held in a 'notorious' prison in El Salvador, has been acknowledged by Justice Department Officials as a mistake
An order from an immigration judge in 2019 barred Garcia from being sent to El Salvador because he might be subject to persecution
'Kilmar was kidnapped... and sent to a hideous prison,' Illinois Rep. Jesus Chuy Garcia said according to NBC. 'And the question now is: "Who will be next?"'
In a Monday court filing, a U.S. Department of Homeland Security official said the agency 'does not have authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.'
And during the sit down at the Oval Office on Monday, Bukele suggested he would not be returning Abrego Garcia.
'The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?' he said. 'I don't have the power to return him to the United States.'
'Should El Salvador want to return Abrego Garcia, the U.S. would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane,' Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
'First and foremost, he was illegally in our country, and he had been illegally in our country,' she said. 'That´s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That´s not up to us.'
An order from an immigration judge in 2019 barred Garcia from being sent to El Salvador because he might be subject to persecution, NBC News reported.
Last week, the Supreme Court told the administration to 'facilitate' his return to the United States.
Hundreds of people have been deported to El Salvador under the president's crackdown on illegal immigration
The country has in return received around $6 million to house deportees at CECOT, a high-security mega-prison
However, the Trump administration has said the issue is no longer under their jurisdiction as he is in the custody of another country.
Vice President JD Vance posted on X and said that 'according to the court document you apparently didn't read he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here.'
Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin reprimanded those describing Garcia as a 'Maryland father.'
'I think this illegal alien is exactly where he belongs - home in El Salvador,' she told Fox.
'He was in our country illegally. He's from El Salvador, was born in El Salvador, and oh, the media forgot to mention he is an MS-13 gang member.'
'The media would love for you to believe this is a media darling and that's just a Maryland father. Well, Osama bin Laden was also a father. And yet, he wasn't a good guy, and they actually are both terrorists.'
The White House described Garcia's deportation as an 'administrative error.'
It claimed that the father of three was a part of MS-13, which was designated a foreign terrorist organization in February, citing a 2019 allegation from Maryland police.
'He would repeat the truth again and again - that he was not in a gang,' Vasquez Sura said
Vice President JD Vance posted on X and said that 'according to the court document you apparently didn't read he was a convicted MS-13 gang member with no legal right to be here'
The 2019 arrest resulted in no charges being filed, and the case sparked nationwide outrage. Court filings claimed the only evidence against Garcia was an anonymous tip and a Chicago Bulls hat he was wearing on his arrest, NBC reported.
Garcia, who grew up in El Salvador's capital city San Salvador, fled to the US illegally in 2011 at the age of 16, according to court filings obtained by NBC.
His family had faced threats of extortion for 'rent money' by a local gang who also threatened to kill his brother or force him into their gang if they weren't paid.
When Garcia was 12, the gang threatened to take away until his father paid them 'all of the money that they wanted,' the outlet reported.
The gang also threatened to rape and kill Garcia's sisters, and his family shut down their business before sending him to the US.
He joined his brother, Cesar, who is now a US Citizen in Maryland.
Garcia was arrested in 2019 at a Home Depot and asked if he was a gang member, which he denied.
He was then detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement and later told an immigration judge that he would seek asylum.
The 2019 arrest resulted in no charges being filed, and the case sparked nationwide outrage. Court filings claimed the only evidence against Garcia was an anonymous tip and a Chicago Bulls hat he was wearing on his arrest
Garcia married Vasquez Sura while still in jail.
In October of 2019, an immigration judge denied his appeal for asylum but granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador because of a 'well-founded fear' of gang persecution.
He was released and ICE did not appeal.
Since, he has checked in with ICE annually and was issued a work permit, according to court filings.
Hundreds of people have been deported to El Salvador under the president's crackdown on illegal immigration. The country has in return received around $6 million to house deportees at CECOT, a high-security mega-prison.
The State Department last week lifted its advisory for American travelers to El Salvador to the safest level, crediting Bukele for reducing gang activity and violent crime.
Lawyers and relatives of the migrants held in El Salvador say they are not gang members and had no opportunity to contest the U.S. government assertion that they were.
