Kilmar Abrego Garcia endured weeks of isolation in a maximum security prison in El Salvador, prompting U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen to push for his release.
U.S. Senator Advocates for Wrongfully Deported Maryland Man's Release
U.S. Senator Advocates for Wrongfully Deported Maryland Man's Release
Senator Chris Van Hollen reveals the traumatic experiences of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland immigrant mistakenly deported to El Salvador.
Senator Chris Van Hollen has shed light on the harrowing situation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man erroneously deported by the Trump administration. During a recent visit to El Salvador, Van Hollen met with Garcia, who reported being held for nearly three weeks in CECOT, a notorious maximum security facility known for its human rights violations. The senator noted that Garcia was transferred to a different detention center in Santa Ana nine days ago, although he remains isolated with no communication to the outside world.
"Conditions are better here," Van Hollen recounted Garcia's statement about his new detention facility, "but he is still in a total blackout." During a press conference at Dulles International Airport after his trip, Van Hollen shared that Garcia felt safe from immediate threats inside his cell but was haunted by the experiences at CECOT, where he encountered hostile inmates calling out and taunting him.
Garcia detailed to Van Hollen how he was taken from his initial arrest in Baltimore to a detention center in Texas and then flown to El Salvador with obscured windows alongside other deportees. This experience left him feeling despondent, as he expressed that being incarcerated with dangerous criminals was deeply distressing. Once granted a reprieve from deportation in 2019, Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who entered the U.S. illegally, is determined to return to the life he left behind. "That’s not who he is," emphasized Van Hollen, underscoring Garcia's plight as a victim of a significant bureaucratic error.
