Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen has made good on his promise to personally check on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland father whom immigration officials admitted was wrongly deported to El Salvador. On Thursday evening, the Democratic senator met with Abrego Garcia at what appeared to be a restaurant in the Central American country, sharing a photo of the two seated at a table with greenery in the background. “I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar,” Van Hollen said. “Tonight, I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.” Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, said the meeting brought her hope, though she remains anxious. “My prayers have been answered,” she said in a statement. “We still have so many questions, hopes, and fears. I will continue praying and fighting for Kilmar’s return home.”

The meeting was the first public appearance by Abrego Garcia since his deportation last month to El Salvador’s controversial Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a prison notorious for its overcrowding and allegations of torture. The deportation drew national outrage and prompted a legal standoff between the courts and the Trump administration. In court filings, the administration admitted Abrego Garcia was deported in error as part of a broader sweep that included hundreds of other Salvadoran and Venezuelan migrants. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the federal government to “facilitate” his return, an order backed by the Supreme Court. But Abrego Garcia has remained detained in El Salvador ever since, with Xinis repeatedly demanding updates and criticizing the government’s inaction. The Trump administration has argued that it is now up to El Salvador to return him, a position a federal appeals court labeled “shocking” on Thursday. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who also posted photos of Van Hollen’s meeting with Abrego Garcia, made clear he has no intention of releasing the Maryland man. “Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody,” Bukele said on social media. In another post, he mocked reports of mistreatment by showing the two men sitting at a table with drinks. “Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ and ‘torture,’ now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!” he wrote.

A source familiar with the meeting told the New York Times that one of Bukele’s aides staged the drinks mid-meeting to downplay the gravity of Abrego Garcia’s detention. Van Hollen, who had earlier been blocked by Salvadoran military officials when attempting to visit the prison, called the meeting “a very sort of simple humanitarian request.” He described the encounter at the prison gates as a “blockade,” an attempt to thwart a U.S. senator’s visit. Human rights organizations have documented severe overcrowding and abuses inside Salvadoran prisons, including CECOT. Abrego Garcia, 29, entered the United States illegally in 2011 at age 16. He was arrested in 2019 outside a Home Depot in Hyattsville, Maryland. Immigration authorities flagged him as a suspected MS-13 member, but a judge barred his deportation, citing the threat of gang persecution in El Salvador.

The key gang allegation stems from a 2019 report authored by Prince George’s County Police Officer Ivan Mendez. Days after the Home Depot incident, Mendez was suspended and later indicted for misconduct in office for allegedly sharing confidential police information with a commercial sex worker. In 2022, he pleaded guilty and was sentenced to probation. The department terminated Mendez in December 2022, and his name was placed on a ‘Do Not Call’ list of officers deemed unreliable. Despite that, the Trump administration used Mendez’s report to justify Abrego Garcia’s detention and eventual deportation this year. In March, immigration agents detained him again in Maryland and transferred him to El Salvador.

In a recent court document, the government cited a confidential informant’s claim that Abrego Garcia was connected to MS-13. His attorneys have denied the allegation, pointing out that he has never been charged with or convicted of any crime. Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland under a judge’s deportation protection order before being swept up and expelled from the country. He called the case part of a broader pattern of abuse under the Trump administration. “This is an example of the much bigger challenge, no doubt about it,” Van Hollen said. “Because my view is when you start picking on the most vulnerable people, and you push and push and push, and you get away with it, then you take the next bite.” Bukele has said El Salvador receives $6 million from the United States to detain deported immigrants like Abrego Garcia.