WASHINGTON — Sen. Chris Van Hollen is flying to El Salvador on Wednesday to push for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia after the mistakenly deported man was not returned by midweek, one of the senator’s conditions for embarking on the trip.
Van Hollen said in a video post from the airport that he was about to board a flight to the country’s capital, adding that his goal was show the Trump administration and El Salvador’s government “that we are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home until he returns to his family.”
Van Hollen, D-Md., represents the state where Abrego Garcia lived.
“I hope to meet with representatives of the government,” Van Hollen said in the video, which was posted to X. “I hope to have the chance to actually see Kilmar and see what his condition is.”
Van Hollen previously said he would travel to El Salvador if the Maryland man was not released by midweek, and other Democratic lawmakers had expressed willingness to join, though they did not appear Van Hollen’s video.
A spokesperson for Van Hollen said on Tuesday that no other lawmakers were joining Van Hollen on his trip.
The senator is making the trip in his official capacity, and his team has a meeting scheduled with a high-level government official, according to a Van Hollen spokesperson.
The Justice Department has said that it mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, and the administration has been ordered by a judge to “facilitate” his return — a move that the Supreme Court later reaffirmed.
In a string of court hearings, the Trump administration has not appeared to make moves to work toward the Maryland man’s release to the U.S., and on Monday, El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, said during an Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump that he wouldn’t send Abrego Garcia back to the U.S., saying that “the question is preposterous.”
Democrats have slammed officials for refusing to work for Abrego Garcia’s release, painting the issue as a matter of the rule of law after court rulings on the case.
“This is about due process. This is about rule of law,” Van Hollen said in the video he took at the airport. “What bullies do is they begin by picking on the most vulnerable. But if we get rid of the rule of law and due process in the United States, it’s a short road from there to tyranny.”
NBC News has reached out to the White House for comment on Van Hollen’s trip.
The White House has claimed that Abrego Garcia is a gang member, which his attorneys have denied. Abrego Garcia has never been charged criminally in the U.S. or El Salvador, according to court records.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who is presiding over Abrego Garcia’s case, has questioned an immigration judge’s previous determination, saying that the “‘evidence’ against Abrego Garcia consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, and a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York — a place he has never lived.”
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said during a press briefing Tuesday that the administration is complying with court orders, and she criticized “Democrat and media outrage” over Abrego Garcia’s deportation.
“Based on the sensationalism of many of the people in this room, you would think we deported a candidate for Father of the Year,” she said.
Abrego Garcia migrated to the U.S. in 2011 and is a legal resident who has been protected by a 2019 court order that he could not be sent back to El Salvador.
Gary Grumbach , Dareh Gregorian, Raquel Coronell Uribe and Frank Thorp V contributed.
