Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has requested a meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele during his current visit to the United States to discuss the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to an infamous Salvador prison due to an "administrative error" by the Trump administration.
In a letter to the Salvadoran ambassador to the U.S. Milena Mayorga written Monday, Van Hollen said U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported to a prison in El Salvador.
"I have met with Mr. Abrego Garcia’s wife, mother and brother and, as you can imagine, they are extremely worried about his health, safety, and continued illegal confinement, as am I," he wrote in the letter.
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"I look forward to your response," the Maryland Democrat told the envoy.
During a press conference alongside Bukele in the Oval Office on Monday, Trump claimed that the Supreme Court had ruled 9–0 in his favor and that the ruling in the case meant that the U.S. government would have to provide a plane only if the Salvadoran president chose to return Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man wrongfully deported to an infamous Salvadoran prison.
“Of course I’m not going to do it,” Bukele said when asked by reporters if he would help return the man, adding that returning him would be akin to smuggling “a terrorist into the United States.”
In a statement sharing the letter, the Senator said, “If Kilmar is not home by midweek — I plan to travel to El Salvador this week to check on his condition and discuss his release."
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Democratic strategists and commentators are calling on other Democratic lawmakers to follow in Van Hollen's footsteps and call for Abrego Garcia's return.
"What’s happening to him is wrong, and we need Dems to draw attention to it," Democratic strategist Mike Nellis wrote on the social platform X.
Academic Keith Orejel, while sharing the letter on X, said, "Make Chris Van Hollen minority leader. Oust Schumer and all the other spineless collaborationists who have said next to nothing about this issue."