Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) wrote a letter to the president after returning from meeting with both El Salvador’s vice president and Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
WASHINGTON โ Two weeks after returning from El Salvador, Sen. Chris Van Hollen revealed what he and Salvadoran Vice President Felix Ulloa spoke about in a heated letter to President Donald Trump.ย
After visiting Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father mistakenly deported in March, the senator from Maryland said he believes the Trump administration is actively failing to comply with the court order to return him to the U.S.
Along with President Nayib Bukele, Ulloa has vowed not to return Abrego Garcia back to the United States. And despite a rare unanimous Supreme Court order to facilitate his return, Trump has not asked the country’s government to send him back. He claims he doesn’t have the power to have anyone removed from a sovereign country’s prison, but Van Hollen said Ulloa told him they’re not holding Abrego Garcia because El Salvador believes he is a criminal. In fact, Ulloa allegedly said that the country’s leaders do not know if there is any evidence that Abrego Garcia committed any crime, nor is it their responsibility to find it.ย
“‘We have a deal with the U.S. government,'” Ulloa apparently told Van Hollen. “‘They send people. We host them. They pay. And that’s it.'”
According to Van Hollen, Ulloa repeatedly told him that “the ball is in your court” during the conversation, which he seemingly took to mean that Abrego Garcia’s future is up to the U.S.
Based on the conversation, Van Hollen told Trump he believes his administration could easily facilitate Abrego Garcia’s release by telling El Salvador they are not contractually bound to hold him in prison anymore.ย
“My conversation with Vice President Ulloa shows that your Administrationโs claim that El Salvador is exercising its ‘sovereign’ decision to continue to hold Mr. Abrego Garcia is a farce,” Van Hollen wrote. “The Government of El Salvador is imprisoning him because your Administration is paying them to do so and they claim to be contractually obligated.”
Despite the Trump administration’s repeated claims that Abrego Garcia is a member of the gang MS-13 and that he has committed crimes, a federal judge said the government has shown no evidence that either of those claims are true.ย
“So your Administration should put up or shut up in court,” Van Hollen wrote. “I am not vouching for the man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, I am vouching for his rights.”
Even in the case of people who may genuinely be members of gangs, Van Hollen asserted, there are already established ways to prosecute and work within communities to fight gang violence without violating their constitutional right to due process.ย
Abrego Garcia is just the tip of the iceberg for Van Hollen. He believes that if the government gets away with ignoring the court on Abrego Garcia’s deportation, it spells bad news for the whole country.
“If your Administration can strip away the constitutional rights of one man in defiance of court orders, it can do it to all of us,” Van Hollen wrote.
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