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The democratic senator who flew to meet the man who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador said that photos of them were staged with margaritas by officials working for the country’s president.
Chris van Hollen added that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported from the US last month, told him that he had been moved from a notorious prison with high security in El Salvador to a detention center with better conditions.
The deportation of Mr. Garcia became a flash point in the US, with the Democrats showing it as a brutal consequence of Donald Trump’s disregard for the courts, while Republicans criticized Democrats for defending him and argued that his deportation was part of a greater effort to reduce crime.
Mr. Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who lived in Maryland, is being detained in the Central American country, despite the US Supreme Court requesting the White House to facilitate his return home.
Trump officials said that Mr. Garcia ties have the violent MS-13 gang. The attorneys of Mr. However, Garcia says the government has not provided any evidence, and he has never been charged with any crime associated with such activities.
Mr. Van Hollen flew to El Salvador and met with Mr Garcia this week in an attempt to secure his return to America.
Chris van Hollen and Kilmar Abrego Garcia, seen in a photo shared by the President of El Salvador. Photo: Nayib Bukele on x
Van Hollen (right) says Margaritas was later brought to the table. Photo: Senator of Hollen/AP from the Peach Off Office
Van Hollen, who spoke to reporters at Washington Dulles International Airport on Friday, said: “As the federal courts said, we must bring home Mr. Abrego Garcia to protect his constitutional rights to the proper process. And it is also important that people understand that this matter is not just about one man.
“It’s about protecting the constitutional rights of all living in the United States of America.”
Mr. Van Hollen added that the Trump administration was using a right to keep residents of this country ‘in foreign prisons’ without the appearance of the right process that is the basis for our constitutional order.’
The senator also revealed that Mr. Garcia was brought from a detention center to his hotel after the initial requests to meet or talk to him were denied.
Mr. Van Hollen said that Mr. Garcia told him that he was “traumatized” after being detained in the notorious Cecot prison in El Salvador, but that he was moved to a “different facility” with better conditions nine days ago.
The senator said that Mr. Garcia told him that he was worried about his family and that he was giving him the power to persevere “and keeping” under horrible circumstances. “
Mr. Garcia’s wife, Jennifer, was at the news conference and wiped away tears while Mr. Van Hollen spoke of her husband’s desire to talk to her.
Earlier, Mr. Van Hollen posted photos of himself with Mr. Garcia met.
Chris van Hollen speaks at Washington Dulles International Airport. Pic: ap
It came before El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele shared his own images of the meeting, which he said showed the few “sipping margaritas” in the “Tropical Paradise of El Salvador”.
In an apparent sarcastic remark, Mr. Bukele wrote that Mr. Garcia ‘rose miraculously’ from the ‘death camps’.
Van Hollen said: ‘We just had a glasses of water on the table. I think maybe he has some coffee.
‘And while we were talking, one of the government people came over and put two other glasses on the table with ice. And I don’t know if it was salt or sugar around the top, but it looked like margaritas.
“When you look at the one they put in front of Kilmer, it actually had a little less fluid than the one in me in front of me to make it look, I assume he drank from it.
“Let me just be very clear. None of us touched the drinks in front of us. ‘
He added that people could say that he was telling the truth, because if someone drank from one of the glass, there would be a ‘gap’ where the ‘salt or sugar’ disappeared.
Mr. Van Hollen said that the image shows the ‘length’ that the president of El Salvador will go to ‘mislead people about what’s going on’.
‘It also shows the lengths that the Trump administration and [President Trump] Will go, because when he was asked by a reporter about this, he just went along for the ride. “
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