A man from Maryland who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration has been transferred to a different prison, according to US Senator Chris Van Hollen.
After returning from El Salvador, where he had a meeting with Kilmar Ábrego García, who was sent to the notorious prison Cecot (Centre for the Confinement of Terrorism) last month, Senator Van Hollen revealed this.
According to Van Hollen, Mr Ábrego García experienced trauma and fear while inside Cecot, feeling unsafe among other prisoners. However, over a week ago, he was moved to another facility in the country.
Despite the Supreme Court’s order to facilitate his return, there has been resistance from officials in the Trump administration.
The White House claims that Mr Ábrego García is a member of the transnational Salvadorian gang MS-13, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and asserts that he won’t be returning to the US.
Mr Ábrego García has never been convicted of a crime. Both his family and attorneys have strongly denied any connection to MS-13.
Initially, Salvadoran authorities blocked Chris Van Hollen from meeting Mr Ábrego García, but later, with the help of government officials, a meeting was facilitated and he was brought to the senator’s hotel.
“It was his first communication with anyone outside of prison since he was taken,” Van Hollen remarked.
“He expressed deep sadness about being imprisoned for crimes he didn’t commit,” Van Hollen stated.
The senator added that conditions in the new prison, located in Santa Ana, were better.
However, Van Hollen noted that Mr Ábrego García still lacked access to outside news and any means of communication.
Mr Ábrego García’s case is part of a larger dispute between the Trump administration and the US courts over immigration issue.
A separate dispute has arisen after a judge stated his intention to hold the Trump administration in contempt for their deliberate disregard of an order to halt deportation flights.
Multiple judges, including a unanimous US Supreme Court ruling, have stated that the government should facilitate Mr Ábrego García’s return to the US. However, the White House has insisted that Mr Ábrego García would “never” live in the US again.
“If he [Mr Ábrego García] ever ends up back in the United States, he would immediately be deported again,” said White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt.
Reuters
President Donald Trump told reporters at the White House that Mr Ábrego García is “not a very innocent guy”.
Mr Ábrego García has faced at least two other allegations of criminal activity, neither of which resulted in a conviction.
His wife alleged in a 2021 protective order request that he’d physically attacked her on multiple occasions, according to documents shared by the US Department of Homeland Security.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura decided not to pursue the court process, stating that she and her husband were “able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counselling”.
A separate incident was reported in 2022, when Mr Ábrego García was pulled over in Tennessee for alleged speeding. An officer speculated that he was involved in human trafficking, due to him having multiple people in the car and telling authorities he’d been travelling from Texas to Maryland, according to information shared by the Department of Homeland Security that was obtained by the BBC’s partner CBS.
No criminal case was launched from the incident. His wife said he “worked in construction and sometimes transported groups of workers between job sites”.
At the heart of the case, though, are the allegations of his involvement in MS-13, which the Trump administration used to expel him under the Alien Enemies Act.
The president has invoked the law to deport hundreds so far, arguing that the alleged gang members were terrorists.
Sen Van Hollen said the Trump administration wants to “flat out lie about what this case is about”.
“If you want to make claims about Ábrego García, you should present them in the courts, not on social media,” he said.
Mr Ábrego García was arrested by immigration authorities on 12 March in Baltimore, before being deported from Texas to El Salvador on 15 March.
