Senator heads to El Salvador to find Maryland migrant deported erroneously by Trump

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., is in El Salvador to get answers about the wrongful deportation of a Maryland migrant by the Trump administration, he said in a video ahead of boarding a flight on Wednesday.

Van Hollen said he had been planning the trip for the last few days and that he hopes to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in person and see his condition.

Abrego Garcia, who reportedly fled political persecution from El Salvador and was deported last month by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency following an “administrative error,” remains in the CECOT prison despite court orders requesting the U.S. government “facilitate” bringing him back to the United States.

“The goal of this mission is to let the Trump administration, to let the government of El Salvador know that we are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home,” Van Hollen said in a video.

He posted another video after he landed and said he was on his way to meet with members of the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador.

It is unclear if anyone else is joining the senator on the trip.

Van Hollen told reporters later in the afternoon that he wasn’t able to speak with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele but did speak with the vice president. The senator asked why Abrego Garcia has been held at CECOT despite no criminal charges.

“His answer was that the Trump administration is paying El Salvador, the government of El Salvador, to keep him at CECOT,” Van Hollen said.

“I’m asking President Bukele under his authority as president of El Salvador to do the right thing and allow Mr. Abrego Garcia to walk out of a prison, a man who is charged with no crime, convicted with no crime and was illegally abducted from the United States,” the senator said.

He added that he did not speak with Abrego Garcia nor enter CECOT. Republican Congress members have taken tours of the facility in the last few weeks and have posted pictures from the inside on social media.

“I don’t know about his health status — that’s why I wanted to meet with him directly,” Von Hollen said.

Attorney General Pam Bondi alleged Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member and was able to be deported because of President Donald Trump’s executive orders on immigration. She added Wednesday morning during a press briefing that Abrego Garcia will not be returning to the U.S.

“He should not be in our country,” Bondi said. “He was deported. They needed one additional step in paperwork, but now MS-13 is characterized as they should be as an FTO, as a foreign terrorist organization. So he is not coming back to our country.

“President Bukele said he was not sending him back,” she added. “That’s the end of the story.”

The Department of Justice has not made that accusation in court papers and admitted the deportation was an error, and Bondi declined to answer a reporter’s question about why the DOJ hasn’t presented direct evidence of this. Abrego Garcia’s family and attorneys have been fighting the deportation for weeks in court.

Van Hollen reiterated that none of these allegations were not made in court and no charges related to the allegations have been issued.

The Supreme Court unanimously ruled last week that the 29-year-old father, who had no criminal record in the U.S., was illegally deported. However, Bondi has claimed El Salvador’s government is not giving him up.

“What bullies do is they begin by picking on the most vulnerable,” Van Hollen said.

The White House slammed the senator in a statement Wednesday afternoon reiterating allegations that Abrego Garcia was a gang member and involved in human trafficking. None of these allegations or charges have been made in court, and the DOJ has not revealed any evidence supporting its claims.

“The criminal illegal immigrant is already home — he’s a Salvadoran citizen,” the White House said in a statement.

The senator said he would “continue pressing” to secure Abreo Garcia’s release.

ABC News’ Alexander Mallin contributed to this report.