(17 Apr 2025)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
San Salvador, El Salvador – 17 April 2025
1. Wide of Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen addressing journalists
2. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Van Hollen, U.S. Maryland Senator:
“So today, I tried again to make contact with Mr. Abrego Garcia."
3. Wide of Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen addressing journalists
4. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Van Hollen, U.S. Maryland Senator:
“We were told by the soldiers that they’ve been ordered not to allow us to proceed any further than that point."
5. Wide of Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen addressing journalists
6. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Van Hollen, U.S. Maryland Senator:
“Since Mr Abrego Garcia was illegally abducted and sent to CECOT he’s had no communication with anybody on the outside."
7. Wide of Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen addressing journalists
8. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Van Hollen, U.S. Maryland Senator:
"So, there has been no ability, no ability to find out anything about his health and well being."
9. Wide of Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen addressing journalists
10. SOUNDBITE (English) Chris Van Hollen, U.S. Maryland Senator:
“Because we won’t give up until Kilmar has his due process, rights respected,”
11. Wide of Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen addressing journalists
STORYLINE:
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen says he was denied entry into an El Salvador prison on Thursday while he was trying to check on the well-being of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was sent there by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation.
Van Hollen is in El Salvador to push for the release of Abrego Garcia.
The Democratic senator, at a news conference in San Salvador, said that his car was stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint about 3 kilometers from the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, even as they let other cars go 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 him 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 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.
The Maryland senator told reporters Wednesday that he met with Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa, who said his government could not return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
“So today, I tried again to make contact with Mr. Abrego Garcia by driving to the CECOT prison,” Van Hollen said, and was stopped.
Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia has not had any contact with his family or his lawyers.
“There has been no ability to find out anything about his health and well being," Van Hollen said. He said Abrego Garcia should be able to have contact with his lawyers under international law.
“We won’t give up until Kilmar has his due process rights respected,” Van Hollen said.
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