Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen has strongly condemned what he describes as the Trump administration’s blatant violation of U.S. court orders, after a Maryland man was wrongfully deported and imprisoned in one of the world’s most notorious detention facilities.
Since taking office as the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump has revived a wartime-era law to carry out sweeping deportations. More than 250 individuals labeled as suspected criminals have already been sent to El Salvador’s CECOT prison — the Center for Terrorism Confinement — a facility internationally condemned for its extreme conditions.
Among them is Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, a husband and father from Maryland, who was mistakenly deported last month. Despite the Trump administration acknowledging the error and the U.S. Supreme Court ordering it to facilitate his return, Ábrego García remains imprisoned.
Senator Van Hollen, who has attempted to intervene on his behalf, claims the situation is far more disturbing than a simple administrative mistake. Speaking to the press, he revealed that his request to meet with Ábrego García — or even speak to him by phone — was denied by El Salvador’s Vice President Félix Ulloa.
“This is unjust,” Van Hollen stated, via X. “The courts of the United States have found no evidence to support the charge that Mr. Ábrego García is part of MS13. So I asked the Vice President whether El Salvador has any such evidence — and if not, why are they still holding him?”
According to Van Hollen, the Vice President gave a chilling answer: “The Trump administration is paying El Salvador to keep him at CECOT.”
Van Hollen went on to stress that neither the U.S. nor El Salvador has produced any evidence that Ábrego García committed a crime. “So why not release him today?” he asked. The Vice President reportedly responded by repeating what President Bukele told U.S. officials during a recent White House visit: El Salvador “can’t smuggle” Ábrego García back into the United States.
But Van Hollen clarified he isn’t asking for any kind of illegal reentry — just that El Salvador release an innocent man and allow the U.S. to retrieve him. “The Attorney General, Pam Bondi, has already said the United States would send a plane to bring him home,” he said.
Despite the Supreme Court’s clear directive, Van Hollen claims the Trump administration has shown no sign it is complying. He also alleges that the U.S. embassy in El Salvador has received no instructions whatsoever from Washington to facilitate the release.
“So, the Trump administration is clearly violating a U.S. court order,” he said. “But beyond that, why is the government of El Salvador continuing to imprison a man against whom they have no evidence, and who was illegally removed from the United States in the first place?”
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