Republican Rep. Riley Moore posted a photo on Tuesday of himself smiling with two thumbs up inside the Salvadoran mega prison holding Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia and other U.S. deportees. A day later, Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen wasn’t allowed inside.
Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador to push for the release of Abrego Garcia, who lived in Maryland before he was deported to the prison last month.
The administration has made clear it doesn’t intend to do anything to bring back Abrego Garcia, despite multiple officials acknowledging that the deportation was a mistake. The Trump administration punted the issue to the Salvadoran president, who said he would not return him either.
Democrats said Wednesday that they plan to keep pushing.
“If they can open up the prison for right-wing photo ops, certainly they can open it up for visitors to check on the status of an innocent man who’s never been convicted of anything,” Rep. Jamie Raskin said during a press call Wednesday to discuss Abrego Garcia’s case with reporters and other advocates.
Other Republican-aligned representatives have been allowed to visit the prison, including Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Sen. Tom Cotton. Democrats said the same courtesy should be paid to their own party.
“I may be the first United States senator to visit El Salvador on this issue, but there will be more, and there will be more members of Congress coming,” Van Hollen said during a press conference in El Salvador on Wednesday.
Van Hollen said Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa told him a visit could possibly be arranged with more notice but made no such suggestion about a meeting with Abrego Garcia for either the senator or his family.
Van Hollen told him he’s not interested in the facilities, just verifying that Abrego Garcia is alive and well.
“I don’t know about his health status. That’s exactly why I wanted to meet with him directly,” Van Hollen said. “That’s why I wanted to talk to him on the phone. That’s why I want to arrange a phone call with his wife.”
He said he was not able to visit Abrego Garcia or get a phone call with him.
Van Hollen also said the Salvadoran vice president expressed that they couldn’t smuggle Abrego Garcia to the states, as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele stated at the White House on Monday.
“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 prison, a man who’s charged with no crime, convicted of no crime and who was illegally abducted from the United States,” Van Hollen said. “I’m going to keep pressing. I will keep pressing in my remaining time here, and I will keep pressing beyond that, if necessary.”
Other Democrats are also considering going to El Salvador, including Congressional Hispanic Caucus chair Adriano Espaillat.
The Trump administration called out Democrats who spoke in support of Abrego Garcia. On Wednesday, the White House sent out an email with the subject line “Where’s Chris Van Hollen’s Concern for Americans Brutalized by Illegal Immigrant Crime?”
The administration posted a document that Abrego Garcia’s wife once pursued a domestic violence-related restraining order in 2021. That case was reportedly dismissed after his wife did not attend a final hearing, and she has publicly spoken about her desire for him to come back to the U.S. and their family. The White House also has repeatedly claimed he is a member of MS-13, although he was never charged with or convicted of a crime.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an illegal alien, MS-13 gang member and foreign terrorist who was deported back to his home country,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Wednesday. “He will never live in the United States of America again.” (Abrego Garcia was granted protection from deportation to El Salvador by a judge in 2019.)
Many Democrats have continued to press for Abrego Garcia’s release despite the White House comments, with Maryland representatives taking a leading role.
“The whole country is invested in getting him back, and so I’m hopeful that these initial visits will bring him back, and if not, I’m very open to looking at what we need to do in the future,” Raskin said. “If the administration thought that they could just brush this under the rug, they’re badly mistaken.”
About Van Hollen’s trip, he said “we are all completely behind him,” and that he knows there will be a “stream of visitors” until Abrego Garcia is released.
Rep. Glenn Ivey, who represents Abrego Garcia’s family, said he’s not sure if he’ll end up going to El Salvador but wanted to see members of congress continue to put pressure on the administration.
“We’ll see how these visits and meetings that he has play out,” he said. “But if we don’t get him back this time, I think we don’t just quit, we keep pushing.”
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Casey Murray is a NOTUS reporter and an Allbritton Journalism Institute fellow.