Chris Van Hollen accuses El Salvador of ‘set-up’ in meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Sen. Chris Van Hollen said the Salvadoran government fabricated the situation that led to a photo of him and deported MS-13 gang suspect Kilmar Abrego Garcia sitting at a table with margarita glasses in front of them.

Mr. Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, said he and Mr. Abrego Garcia had been sipping water and coffee when a Salvadoran government official placed margarita glasses in front of them.

That led to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele posting images on social media mocking the meeting and saying Mr. Abrego Garcia was in good shape, contrary to allegations of torture and abuse at the original terrorism prison.

Mr. Van Hollen said it was a set-up, and neither he nor Mr. Abrego Garcia ordered, nor drank from the glasses.

“All of that was a set-up,” he said.

He said El Salvador first suggested having the meeting by the hotel pool.

“This is a lesson into the lengths that President Bukele will go to deceive people about what’s going on,” the senator said.

Mr. Van Hollen said the Trump administration has agreed to pay El Salvador $15 million to hold deportees, and to date has paid about $4 million.

He said that $15 million includes money to hold Mr. Abrego Garcia.

That’s an important part of the ongoing legal battle, with Mr. Abrego Garcia’s lawyers saying if the U.S. is paying for him, he’s in America’s custody and the Trump administration should be able to demand his release from El Salvador.

Mr. Van Hollen also said Congress will scrutinize the $15 million to see if it is being spent legally, and he suggested Democrats may try to block continued funding.

Mr. Van Hollen said Mr. Abrego Garcia reported himself to be healthy and said he has been moved from El Salvador’s terrorist prison, where he was first taken, to a less severe facility.

The result is that he now faces better conditions but remains without communication to the outside world.

“He said to me he felt very sad about being in prison because he had not committed any crimes,” Mr. Van Hollen recounted Friday, in a press conference upon his return to Dulles International Airport.

Mr. Abrego Garcia was an illegal immigrant to the U.S. whom an immigration judge found likely to have been a member of MS-13. Another immigration judge ordered him deported, but also found that because he claimed to have been threatened by the gang Barrio 18 when he had previously lived in El Salvador he could not be sent back to that specific country.

On March 15, he was deported to El Salvador anyway and turned over to that country’s government, which put him in its terrorist prison.

The Trump administration says Mr. Abrego Garcia’s wife accused him of beating her in 2021, and in 2022 he was stopped in what authorities have characterized as a potential human smuggling incident.

Mr. Van Hollen on Friday cast doubt on some of those claims.