WASHINGTON – Sen. Chris Van Hollen has scheduled a news conference for Friday in which he is expected to reveal more details about his meeting with a Maryland father who was wrongly deported and is being held in a violent El Salvador prison.
The Maryland Democrat met Thursday night in El Salvador with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was detained in March by U.S. immigration officials near his home in Beltsville, Maryland, and deported to El Salvador, even though an immigration judge had ordered that he could not be returned to the Central American country.
Van Hollen’s meeting with Abrego Garcia was the first time he has been seen publicly since he was sent to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. The prison has been criticized for its harsh and dangerous conditions, as well as its rough treatment of prisoners.