Democratic US Senator, Chris Van Hollen on Wednesday said authorities in El Salvador denied him access to Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man mistakenly deported and being held in a notorious prison in the country.
Van Hollen is said to have arrived in El Salvador on Wednesday to meet with senior officials and advocate for Abrego Garcia’s release.
He was, however, told by El Salvador’s Vice President Felix Ulloa that he could not authorize a visit or a call with Abrego Garcia.
According to Van Hollen, a member of the US Senate Foreign Relations Committee, Ulloa also told him that El Salvador was not releasing Abrego Garcia because the United States was paying to keep him incarcerated.
“Why should the government of the United States pay the government of El Salvador to lock up a man who was illegally abducted from the United States and committed no crime,” Van Hollen queried.
At the time of filing this report, the government of El Salvador has not commented on Van Hollen’s visit.
Meanwhile, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said the Democratic senator was potentially using taxpayer dollars to demand the release of a deported illegal alien MS-13 terrorist.
“It’s appalling and sad that Senator Van Hollen and the Democrats applauding his trip to El Salvador today are incapable of having any shred of common sense or empathy for their own constituents and our citizens,” she said.
The US Supreme Court has ordered the Trump’s administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, after Washington acknowledged he was deported due to an administrative error.
El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, in a meeting with President Donald Trump at the White House on Monday, said he had no plans to return Abrego Garcia.
Meanwhile, the US Department of Homeland Security, DHS, said it lacks the authority to bring the man back to the United States.
