Senator vows to go to El Salvador if Trump administration doesn't return Maryland man

Dan Belson, The Baltimore Sun on Apr 14, 2025

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As the Trump administration continues to stall on a judge’s directive to return a mistakenly deported Maryland man, U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Monday morning that he would take matters into his own hands later this week.

Van Hollen, a Democrat representing Maryland, said in a statement that he had requested a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who is visiting the White House on Monday, to discuss Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release from an El Salvador mega-prison.

That visit seems more likely now that El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Monday it’s “preposterous” to ask if he will return him to the U.S.

“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” Bukele said during a White House meeting with President Donald Trump early Monday afternoon.

And if Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Prince George’s County father, isn’t back by midweek, Van Hollen said he plans to travel to El Salvador “to check on his condition and discuss his release.”

Bukele’s visit comes as U.S. officials continue to dispute a court order to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return from the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador, where the Trump administration is holding hundreds of people facing deportation from the U.S.

A federal judge ordered that the Trump administration facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return after U.S. immigration officials mistakenly deported him due to an “administrative error.”

But even after the Supreme Court upheld the order, finding the government illegally deported Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration has declined to disclose what action, if any, they are taking to return him. They also continued to argue in a Sunday court filing that they couldn’t be ordered to do much more.

“The federal courts have no authority to direct the Executive Branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner,” Justice Department lawyers wrote in the court filing.

Lawyers also noted Bukele’s upcoming meeting with President Donald Trump, saying that officials “will continue to share updates as appropriate.”

“Any further intrusion into this sensitive process — and any directive from the Court to take action against the nation of El Salvador — wouldbe inconsistent with the care counseled by the Supreme Court,” they wrote.

The Supreme Court had ruled in a 9-0 decision that U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had properly ordered for the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. but noted that Xinis was limited in how much she could order the executive branch to “effectuate” his return. Xinis removed the word “effectuate” from a subsequent order.

Lawyers are scheduled to appear before Xinis again Tuesday afternoon at the U.S. District Court in Greenbelt for a follow-up hearing the judge’s order.

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