Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat, has expressed concern over the Trump administration’s alleged disregard for American court orders concerning the controversial El Salvador prison.
Upon taking office as the 47th President of the United States, Donald Trump swiftly initiated mass deportations through a law last used during World War II.
To date, over 250 individuals labeled as criminals have been deported to the Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT) in El Salvador, which is infamous for being one of the most severe prisons globally.
Last month, a Maryland resident, Kilmar Armando Ábrego García, was mistakenly deported there.
Despite the Trump administration admitting to an administrative error and the Supreme Court ordering that it must “facilitate” the return of Ábrego García, he remains detained.
Senator Van Hollen has accused the Trump administration of more than just failing to assist in Ábrego García’s release. He claims he was denied a meeting and phone call with the wrongfully deported individual by El Salvador’s Vice President Félix Ulloa.
Labeling the situation as “unjust,” Van Hollen told the press, “The courts of the United States have said there’s no evidence to support the charge that [Ábrego García] is part of MS13 [an international criminal gang] so I asked the vice president whether or not El Salvador has any evidence that he’s part of MS13 or has committed a crime.”
Van Hollen questioned why El Salvador continues to detain Ábrego García at CECOT despite U.S. courts ruling his deportation as illegal and the lack of evidence linking him to MS13.
Van Hollen claims the vice president responded, “The Trump administration is paying El Salvador – the government of El Salvador – to keep him at CECOT.”
Van Hollen added, “I pointed out that neither the government of El Salvador nor the Trump administration has presented evidence to support the claim that he’s committed any sort of criminal act and so why not release Ábrego García today?”
The vice president reportedly stated that, as echoed by President Bukele in a White House meeting, El Salvador cannot “smuggle Abrego Garcia into the United States.”
Van Hollen clarified that he was not requesting El Salvador to “smuggle” Ábrego García back to the U.S., but simply to release him from prison, noting that “the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, has said that the US would send a plane to El Salvador to pick him up.”
Van Hollen accuses the Trump administration of failing to show evidence of complying with the Supreme Court’s order to “facilitate” Ábrego García’s release.
Moreover, he claims the U.S. embassy in El Salvador has not received any instructions from the Trump administration to aid in the release process.
Van Hollen concluded, “So the Trump administration is clearly in violation of American court orders.”
He continued to question why the government of El Salvador persists in detaining an individual without evidence of criminal activity, and with no proof provided by the United States.