DULLES, Va. — Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is officially on his way to El Salvador to check on the Maryland father mistakenly deported by the Trump administration.
In March, Kilmar Abrego Garcia was arrested and placed on a flight to a notorious Salvadoran prison camp — despite being legally protected against deportation to El Salvador by a 2019 court order. A Trump administration official admitted that Abrego Garcia should never have been on the plane in a court declaration, and last week, the Supreme Court unanimously ordered that he be returned to the U.S.
But Monday, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said alongside President Donald Trump at the White House that he has no intention of returning Abrego Garcia.
Just before going through security at Washington Dulles International Airport, Van Hollen said he is going to the country not just to check on the father of three, but also because of everything the case represents.
“This is about not letting people be just whisked off the street, which the Trump administration admits was done in error, and I just want people to think about what that means,” Van Hollen said. “You go out, you get disappeared, they say they did it in error, but they’re not helping bring you back from the prison that they sent you to.”
“That’s a nightmare for anybody in America, and my view is the Trump administration starts by picking on the most vulnerable, but when you start ignoring court orders and you start ignoring the rule of law in America, it’s a very short road to tyranny,” he added.
Van Hollen said he believes more members of Congress will follow in his footsteps.
Currently, Van Hollen says he has no confirmed meetings with El Salvador’s president or if he will even be able to meet with Abrego Garcia at all. But he said even if he isn’t able to speak with them, his trip has a purpose.
“I hope to meet with senior officials in the government and I hope to have a chance to see Mr. Abrego Garcia to report on his condition, but my overall purpose here is to send a signal that we are not going to stop fighting for his return until he is actually released,” Van Hollen said.
The senator said he is working through the embassy and will have a better idea of what he can do and who he can meet with once he lands in El Salvador.
It’s been 35 days since Abrego Garcia’s wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura has heard from him. She spoke Tuesday in front of the Greenbelt Courthouse, just before the federal judge presiding over the case said the Trump administration has not attempted to follow her order to facilitate his return.
Judge Paula Xinis ordered the government to bring in four officials to prove that they are trying to bring him back to the U.S. The process will take two weeks.
“It’s about respecting court orders because that is what separates the United States from authoritarianism and tyranny is that we respect the rule of law regardless of your status or position in society,” Van Hollen said. “And if you throw that out the window, God help us, because every American then could be subject to this kind of terror and trauma.”
