U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen met Thursday evening with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is being held in an El Salvador prison after wrongly being deported from Maryland.
Van Hollen, D-Md., confirmed the meeting in a post on X with a picture of the two talking.
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WATCH HERE"I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar," the senator's post read. "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."
I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. 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. pic.twitter.com/U9y2gZpxCb
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) April 18, 2025
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SIGN UP El Salvador's president also shared photos of Abrego Garcia on social media Thursday night, writing on X, "Now that Abrego Garcia has been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody."
A White House spokesperson responded on X late Thursday, writing: "Chris Van Hollen has firmly established Democrats as the party whose top priority is the welfare of an illegal alien MS-13 terrorist. President Trump will continue to stand on the side of law abiding Americans."
Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, released a statement reading in part: "My children and my prayers have been answered. The efforts of my family and community in fighting for justice are being heard, because I now know that my husband is alive. God is listening, and the community is standing strong.”
Van Hollen said earlier Thursday he was denied entry into the prison while trying to check on the well-being of Abrego Garcia, who was sent there by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation.
At a news conference in San Salvador after his failed attempt to meet with Abrego Garcia, the senator said his car was stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint about 2 miles (3 kilometers) from the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), where Abrego Garcia is being held, as other cars were allowed to continue on.
“They stopped us because they are under orders not to allow us to proceed," Van Hollen said.
U.S. President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said this week that they have no basis to send Abrego Garcia back, even as the Trump administration has called his deportation a mistake and the U.S. Supreme Court has called on the administration to facilitate his return. Trump officials have said that Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland, has ties to the MS-13 gang, but his attorneys say the government has provided no evidence of that and Abrego Garcia has never been charged with any crime related to such activity.
Van Hollen’s trip has become a partisan flashpoint in the U.S. as Democrats have seized on Abrego Garcia's deportation as what they say is a cruel consequence of Trump's disregard for the courts. Republicans have criticized Democrats for defending him and argued that his deportation is part of a larger effort to reduce crime.
Van Hollen said Wednesday he met with Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa, who also said his government could not return Abrego Garcia.
“So today, I tried again to make contact with Mr. Abrego Garcia by driving to the CECOT prison,” Van Hollen said Thursday.
While Van Hollen was denied entry, several House Republicans have visited the notorious gang prison in support of the Trump administration's efforts. Rep. Riley Moore, a West Virginia Republican, posted Tuesday evening that he’d visited the prison where Abrego Garcia is being held. He did not mention Abrego Garcia but said the facility “houses the country’s most brutal criminals.”
“I leave now even more determined to support President Trump’s efforts to secure our homeland,” Moore posted on social media.
Missouri Republican Rep. Jason Smith, chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, also visited the prison. He posted on X that “thanks to President Trump" the facility “now includes illegal immigrants who broke into our country and committed violent acts against Americans.”
The fight over Abrego Garcia has also played out in contentious court filings, with repeated refusals from the government to tell a judge what it plans to do, if anything, to repatriate him.
Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the U.S. more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants — whom Trump administration officials have accused of gang activity and violent crimes — and placed them inside the country’s maximum-security gang prison just outside San Salvador. That prison is part of Bukele’s broader effort to crack down on the country’s powerful street gangs, which has put 84,000 people behind bars and made Bukele extremely popular at home.
Human rights groups have accused Bukele's government of subjecting those jailed to “systematic use of torture and other mistreatment." Officials there deny wrongdoing.
