Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s diplomatic mission to El Salvador culminated in a face-to-face meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the mistakenly deported man whose case has inflamed national immigration debates in recent weeks.
Van Hollen, a Democrat, framed the trip as a success, telling the world he did what he set out to do by speaking with Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran citizen who was deported from Maryland last month.
But President Donald Trump and his allies lashed out at Van Hollen’s visit and subsequent news conference upon landing Friday afternoon at Dulles International Airport, criticizing him for not responding forcefully to the murder of a Maryland woman by an illegal immigrant.
Here are a few takeaways from the meeting:
Van Hollen appeals to human rights
Before photos of his meeting with Abrego Garcia surfaced online, Van Hollen’s journey to El Salvador seemed poised to end in failure. His first request for a meeting was denied Wednesday by Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa, and state security forces stopped his entourage about 2 miles from the CECOT prison earlier on Thursday.
But during a news conference on Thursday afternoon, Van Hollen saw his chance to frame Abrego Garcia’s case around human rights and transcend the situation’s inherent political tensions. He told reporters that El Salvador has ratified the United Nations’ International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights, an international agreement which, in part, requires prisoners to be able to communicate with their attorneys.
“I want to point out that this inability with his lawyers is a violation of international law,” Van Hollen said. “El Salvador is a party to the International Covenant on Political and Civil Rights. The covenant says, and I quote, ‘A detained or imprisoned person shall be entitled to communicate and consult with his legal counsel.’”
Upon his return to the U.S., Van Hollen did not specify how Salvadoran officials arranged his meeting with Abrego Garcia, but he believes President Nayib Bukele was pressured by his presence in the country.
“We had two major press conferences that included the local press,” Van Hollen said.
Before Thursday, Abrego Garcia — a Salvadoran citizen who was granted “withholding of removal” status in 2019 and had legal papers to work in the U.S. — had not been heard from since his March 15 deportation from Texas after being arrested by ICE in Maryland three days earlier. Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia has since been moved to a different prison with better conditions, but still has no contact with the outside world.
‘Margaritagate’: El Salvador’s president spins meeting
Political commentators characterized the meeting between Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia as the senator outfoxing Trump and Bukele, but social media posts and comments from Van Hollen’s Dulles news conference suggest the Salvadoran dictator somewhat succeeded in stirring the pot.
Just as Van Hollen posted the viral photo of his meeting with Abrego Garcia, Bukele posted three other photos of the meeting in a cafe-like setting accompanied by a snarky message about the prisoner’s condition: “Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!”
The photos showed Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia talking over drinks with cherries atop their glasses — a stark contrast from Van Hollen’s photo of the two men drinking only water in a more understated environment.
This framing, which Van Hollen referred to Friday as “Margaritagate,” clearly put the senator on the defensive as he accused Salvadoran officials of trying to project a sanitized image of the situation. He said El Salvador’s government initially wanted the meeting held by the pool of the hotel where Van Hollen was staying, which the senator refused.
“Nobody drank any margaritas, or sugar water or whatever it is,” Van Hollen said, claiming the drinks were placed on the table for the cameras during their meeting.
“They want to create this appearance that life was just lovely for Kilmar,” Van Hollen added, calling the situation “a lesson” in “the lengths that President Bukele will do to deceive people about what’s going on.”
Bukele followed up his initial posts Thursday night by saying Abrego Garcia would remain in El Salvador’s custody and a simple “I love chess” message, which was re-posted by several Trump administration officials — including White House Communications Director Steven Chueng.
Bukele’s comments suggest that, despite his potential involvement in allowing Abrego Garcia to meet with Van Hollen, he is still content to do Trump’s bidding as the American president seeks to load up Salvadoran prisons with deportees.
Republicans pounce on Van Hollen
Trump officials slammed Van Hollen’s meeting with Abrego Garcia, claiming he’s taken more interest in someone with a questionable background who entered the U.S. illegally than Maryland mother Rachel Morin, who was murdered by a Salvadoran fugitive along the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in 2023.
Morin’s mother, Patty Morin, took aim at the senator during a Fox News appearance Friday. The appearance came after she was invited to speak at Wednesday’s White House press briefing.
“He’s had no interaction with me concerning my daughter, Rachel,” she said. “But yet, he uses my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to advocate for a criminal.”
Despite allegations of his connection to the gang MS-13, Abrego Garcia has no criminal record in either the U.S. or El Salvador.
In a social media post Friday, Trump said Van Hollen “looked like a fool… standing in El Salvador begging for attention.” He later told reporters Abrego Garcia was “not a very innocent guy” while reading from a piece of paper he said contained information about Abrego Garcia’s past legal troubles, including a 2021 domestic violence complaint in which no charges were filed.
Courts side with Abrego Garcia
While the Trump White House has pounced on Democrats’ concern for Abrego Garcia as evidence that they are soft on illegal immigration, court rulings related to this case have not backed up the administration’s failure to return him to the U.S.
The Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling in Noem v. Abrego Garcia required Trump to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return, which federal judges have said the administration has taken no meaningful steps toward doing while it continues to appeal.
Another appeals court said Thursday that the Trump administration’s claim it can’t do anything to free Abrego Garcia “should be shocking.” The ruling was written by Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, a conservative appointee of President Ronald Reagan, who noted that he and his two colleagues “cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos.”
Trump dodged a question Thursday about whether Abrego Garcia is entitled to due process, saying he would refer it to government attorneys.
“I have to refer, again, to the lawyers,” he said in the Oval Office. “I have to do what they ask me to do.”
Legal analysts have suggested the case could return to the Supreme Court before Abrego Garcia is returned to the U.S.
The story is here to stay
Developments surrounding Abrego Garcia have dominated national headlines in recent weeks, and will likely continue to do so as more lawmakers gear up for trips on his behalf.
Maryland Rep. Glenn Ivey, a Democrat, plans to visit El Salvador in May to conduct a “welfare check” on Abrego Garcia, a resident of his district.
“By the time I get down to El Salvador next month, I want to be able to report back to his wife & kids that their Dad is okay,” Ivey posted on X Thursday. “The government of the United States or El Salvador should not stand in the way of me doing a welfare check on my constituent.”
Ivey’s office says it is still planning the trip and is unsure if other congressmen will join him. New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat who recently gave the longest Senate speech in American history, has expressed interest in traveling to El Salvador for Abrego Garcia.
Have a news tip? Contact Carson Swick at cswick@baltsun.com.