Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen spoke with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador on Thursday, holding a high-profile meeting with a man who the Trump administration says was mistakenly sent there.
Van Hollen posted a message about the meeting but did not share details about the status of Abrego Garcia's case. The images of the meeting were among the first indications of Abrego Garcia's condition since being sent to a prison facility in the country.
"There has been no ability to find out anything about [Abrego Garcia's] health and well-being," Van Hollen said this week. "We won’t give up until Kilmar has his due process rights respected."
Van Hollen is expected to provide more details about his meeting with Abrego Garcia in a press conference in Washington, D.C. on Friday.
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While the Trump administration initially said Abrego Garcia was "mistakenly" sent to El Salvador, some officials have also since indicated that Abrego Garcia will not be returned to the U.S., and would be immediately removed should he return.
"The basic fact that he was illegally inside our country and had a lawful deportation order made him subject to removal back to his home country of El Salvador," White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday. "And if he ever ends up back in the United States, he would immediately be deported again. Nothing will change the fact that Abrego Garcia will never be a Maryland father, he will never live in the United States of America again."
On social media, President Donald Trump accused Van Hollen of being a "grandstander" and seeking attention.
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On Friday, the Department of Homeland Security released information that it says suggests Abrego Garcia may have been involved in human trafficking.
The report details a traffic stop in which the Tennessee Highway Patrol encountered Abrego Garcia and eight other people in a vehicle.
"There was no luggage in the vehicle, leading the encountering officer to suspect this was a human trafficking incident," the report states.
The report also appears to confirm that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang.
