{"id":8331,"date":"2025-04-17T20:02:00","date_gmt":"2025-04-17T20:02:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/sen-van-hollen-blocked-from-el-salvador-prison-where-maryland-man-is-held\/"},"modified":"2025-04-17T20:02:00","modified_gmt":"2025-04-17T20:02:00","slug":"sen-van-hollen-blocked-from-el-salvador-prison-where-maryland-man-is-held","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/sen-van-hollen-blocked-from-el-salvador-prison-where-maryland-man-is-held\/","title":{"rendered":"Sen. Van Hollen blocked from El Salvador prison where Maryland man is held"},"content":{"rendered":"
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El Salvador refused Thursday to allow Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen to see the Maryland man who the Trump administration mistakenly whisked off to a notorious prison in his Central American homeland.<\/p>\n

The Maryland senator said he traveled to El Salvador to check on the health condition of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the administration sent to the prison despite a judge\u2019s order that he be allowed to remain in the U.S. Van Hollen said soldiers blocked their approach.<\/p>\n

\u201cNobody has had any communication with him since he was illegally abducted from Maryland,\u201d he said in a video posted to social media<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The case has become a flashpoint for Democrats and other critics of the administration\u2019s deportation efforts. The Supreme Court has directed the government to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia, who had been allowed to remain in the U.S. after a judge determined he had a legitimate fear of persecution in El Salvador.<\/p>\n

President Donald Trump and El Salvador\u2019s leader, President Nayib Bukele, have said they have no basis to bring him back.<\/p>\n

Van Hollen, who tried to visit Abrego Garcia with an attorney for the family, was denied access despite the fact that Republican members of Congress have been able to enter a facility<\/a> that has drawn condemnation for the harsh conditions of confinement.<\/p>\n

\u201cToday\u2019s purpose was just to see what his health condition is, and these soldiers were ordered to prevent us from going any farther from this spot,\u201d the senator said in the video.<\/p>\n

Democrats have taken on Abrego Garcia\u2019s plight as part of what they\u2019ve called a growing constitutional crisis<\/a> under the Trump administration. In a press conference, Van Hollen said that his deportation should spark fears of a greater violation of due process rights.<\/p>\n

Some House Democrats moved to arrange a Congressional visit<\/a> to CECOT to see Abrego Garcia, where others like New Jersey Sen. Cory Booker have started planning their own visits to El Salvador.<\/p>\n

House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green, a Republican from Tennessee, shut down the idea of a Congressional sponsored trip to El Salvador in a statement Thursday<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThere is no excuse for Democrats to waste taxpayer dollars visiting and defending a transnational gang member and reported domestic abuser,\u201d Green wrote. \u201cIf Democrats care so much about defending this individual, they can use their own personal credit cards\u2014not taxpayers\u2019 money\u2014to virtue-signal to their radical base.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

El Salvador refused Thursday to allow Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen to see the Maryland man who the Trump administration mistakenly whisked off to a notorious prison in his Central American homeland. The Maryland senator said he traveled to El Salvador to check on the health condition of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who the administration sent […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8331","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8331","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8331"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8331\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8331"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8331"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8331"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}