Date April 16, 2025 | By TruthWire.News Staff
Who: Sen. Chris Van Hollen; Kilmar Abrego Garcia; El Salvador’s government
What: Senator blocked from meeting wrongfully deported Maryland resident
Where: CECOT Prison, El Salvador
When: April 16, 2025
Why: Ongoing defiance of a Supreme Court ruling and disputed claims of gang affiliation
Source: AP; The Independent; The Guardian
U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen was denied access to a Maryland man imprisoned in El Salvador today, intensifying an already volatile legal and diplomatic standoff tied to President Trump’s deportation policy.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national with legal protection from deportation, was forcibly removed from the U.S. in March 2025—despite a 2019 immigration judge’s ruling granting him “withholding of removal” status due to credible threats from gangs in El Salvador. He had been living in Maryland with his U.S. citizen wife and children for over a decade.
The Supreme Court unanimously ruled on April 10 that the U.S. government must “facilitate” his return. But as of today, Garcia remains in El Salvador’s CECOT prison, and the Trump administration has not acted.
Senator Van Hollen flew to San Salvador to press for Garcia’s release—but was denied access to him by El Salvador’s Vice President Félix Ulloa. The administration has alleged Garcia is affiliated with MS-13—an accusation not backed by formal charges or evidence.
“This man was protected by law and deported anyway. Now the administration is ignoring the courts,” Van Hollen said.