Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Monday said he's ready to go to El Salvador if deported former Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia isn't returned to the U.S.
The Maryland Democrat said he will first try to get a meeting arranged with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who is in the U.S. to meet with President Donald Trump. The senator said he officially requested the meeting through El Salvador's ambassador to the U.S.
"I write to urgently request a meeting with President Bukele during his current visit to the United States to discuss the illegal detention of my constituent, Kilmar Abrego Garcia," he said.
The senator wrote that Garcia was ordered returned to the U.S. by a ruling from the U.S. Supreme Court. Van Hollen said if the meeting does not happen, he will go to El Salvador this week "to check on his condition and discuss his release."
Van Hollen posted last week on X, "If the Trump Admin was able to illegally abduct Kilmar Abrego Garcia and send him to El Salvador in 72 hours, then they can sure as hell bring him home in less than that."
Garcia was deported in what someone in the Justice Department purported was a mistake based on court rulings about the man's presence in the U.S. The case went to the Supreme Court, which ruled that the administration must "facilitate" his return.
Bukele told Trump and an audience at the White House on Monday he has no intention of returning the deported Maryland resident to the U.S.
Bukele said, "How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don't have the power to return him to the United States."
Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, clarified the situation, saying: "This individual is a citizen of El Salvador. He was illegally in the United States and was returned to his country. That's where you deport people, back to their country of origin."
Jim Mishler ✉
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