Maryland congressional leaders, including Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) and Rep. Glenn Ivey (D), are working diligently to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a Beltsville husband and father who immigration officials admitted was wrongfully deported to El Salvador— back home. On April 17, Van Hollen made good on his promise to personally check on Abrego Garcia and Ivey announced plans to visit the Maryland man next.
Last Thursday, the Democratic senator met with Abrego Garcia at what appeared to be a restaurant in the Central American country, sharing a photo of the two seated at a table with greenery in the background.
“I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar,” Van Hollen said in a statement last Thursday after the meeting. “Tonight, I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.”
Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, said the meeting brought her hope, though she remains anxious.
“My prayers have been answered,” she said in a statement. “We still have so many questions, hopes, and fears. I will continue praying and fighting for Kilmar’s return home.”
The meeting was the first public appearance by Abrego Garcia since his deportation last month to El Salvador’s controversial Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a prison notorious for its overcrowding and allegations of torture.
In court filings, the administration admitted Abrego Garcia was deported in error as part of a broader sweep that included hundreds of other Salvadoran and Venezuelan migrants. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the federal government to “facilitate” his return, an order backed by the Supreme Court. But Abrego Garcia has remained detained in El Salvador ever since, with Xinis repeatedly demanding updates and criticizing the government’s inaction.
The Trump administration has argued that it is now up to El Salvador to return him, a position a federal appeals court labeled “shocking.”
“The White House and the president have been lying about this case from the beginning. They’ve been trying to change the subject from the beginning,” said Van Hollen in a press conference at Dulles Airport after returning from El Salvador. “As I said and the courts have said—from the Supreme Court, to the Fourth Circuit, to the district court— what this is about is adhering to the constitution to the right of due process. And that’s why we said, ‘Bring Kilmar home,’ so he can be afforded his rights under the Constitution.”
Human rights organizations have documented severe overcrowding and abuses inside Salvadoran prisons, including CECOT.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who also posted photos of Van Hollen’s meeting with Abrego Garcia, made clear he has no intention of releasing the Maryland man.
“Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody,” Bukele said on social media.
In another post, Bukele mocked reports of mistreatment by showing the two men sitting at a table with drinks.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ [and] ‘torture,’ now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador,” he wrote.
However, Van Hollen said in a press conference on Friday that the drinks were staged.
“As we were talking, one of the government people deposited two other glasses on the table, with ice and I don’t know if it was salt or sugar around the top. It looked like margaritas,” said Van Hollen. “And if you look at the one they put in front of Kilmar, it actually had a little less liquid than the one in front of me to try and make it look, I assume, that he drank out of it.”
Behind Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Case: Kilmar’s Legal History and Alleged Gang Ties
Abrego Garcia, 29, entered the United States illegally in 2011 at age 16.
He was arrested in 2019 outside a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Maryland. Immigration authorities flagged him as a suspected MS-13 member, but a judge barred his deportation, citing the threat of gang persecution in El Salvador.
The key gang allegation stems from a 2019 report authored by Prince George’s County Police Officer Ivan Mendez.
Days after the Home Depot incident, Mendez was suspended and later indicted for misconduct in office for allegedly sharing confidential police information with a commercial sex worker. In 2022, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation. The department terminated Mendez in December 2022, and his name was placed on a “Do Not Call” list of officers deemed unreliable.
Despite that, the Trump administration used Mendez’s report to justify Abrego Garcia’s detention and eventual deportation this year. In March, immigration agents detained him again in Maryland and transferred him to El Salvador.
Bukele has said El Salvador receives $6 million from the United States to detain deported immigrants like Abrego Garcia.
In a recent court document, the government cited a confidential informant’s claim that Abrego Garcia was connected to MS-13. His attorneys have denied the allegation, pointing out that he has never been charged with or convicted of any crime.
Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland under a judge’s deportation protection order before being swept up and expelled from the country. He called the case part of a broader pattern of abuse under the Trump administration.
“This is an example of the much bigger challenge, no doubt about it,” Van Hollen said. “Because my view is when you start picking on the most vulnerable people, and you push and push and push, and you get away with it, then you take the next bite.”
Ivey’s Work, Plans to Visit Abrego Garcia
With Abrego Garcia still in El Salvador, Congressman Ivey is planning to travel to the Central American country to check on the Maryland man.
“By the time I get down to El Salvador next month, I want to be able to report back to his wife [and] kids that their dad is okay,” Ivey wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. “The government of the United States or El Salvador should not stand in the way of me doing a welfare check on my constituent.”
Ivey penned a letter calling for the return of Abrego Garcia that was signed by over 150 House Democrats, including Maryland congressional members Reps. Steny Hoyer (D- District 5), Kweisi Mfume (D- District 7), and April McClain Delaney (D- District 6).
“Instead of the endless spin and excuses, the Trump administration should comply with the Supreme Court’s order to facilitate Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s return to his family in the United States,” Ivey wrote in the letter. “The President has the power to do so and must act without delay.”