A US senator has met with a man who Trump administration officials have acknowledged was deported in error from Maryland to a mega-prison in El Salvador.
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen posted photos of his meeting with Kilmar Ábrego García, whom the administration has refused to return to the US despite an order from a federal judge.
After the meeting, El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele also refused to release Mr Ábrego García and said he would remain in the country’s custody.
The White House has accused Mr Ábrego García of being a member of the transnational Salvadoran gang MS-13, a designated foreign terrorist organisation, which his lawyer denies.
It comes amid an escalating showdown between the president and the judiciary on immigration, a day after a judge in another case said the administration could be held in contempt of court over deportation flights.
“I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance,” the Democratic senator posted on social media.
“I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.”
The senator said he was stopped earlier in the day by armed guards on his way to Cecot, the maximum-security prison where Mr Ábrego García has been detained. Van Hollen has been in the country for several days, working for the release of Mr Ábrego García- who was a resident of his state.
El Salvador’s president reposted the photos on X of the senator meeting Mr Ábrego García and appeared to mock the concern over the inmate’s wellbeing.
President Bukele commented that Mr Ábrego García had “miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture'” in the “tropical paradise of El Salvador”.
“Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody,” the president added.
Mr Ábrego García was living in Maryland, before he was deported on 15 March with scores of Salvadorans and Venezuelans to the Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot) in El Salvador.
Maryland Judge Paula Xinis ruled that Mr Ábrego García’s removal from the country breached a 2019 court order that had granted him legal protection from deportation.
The US Supreme Court last week partially upheld the lower court ruling, finding that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Mr Ábrego García’s release.
Trump administration officials have conceded the deportation was an “administrative error”, although the White House insists there was no mistake.
The Republican president’s allies have argued the deportation is making good on his campaign promise to keep Americans safe.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told a a briefing on Wednesday: “He [Mr Ábrego García] will never live in the United States of America.”
She was joined by the mother of a Maryland woman, Rachel Morin, who was murdered in August 2023 by an alleged fugitive from El Salvador.
