$4M paid to El Salvador for detention of migrants, says Van Hollen

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen updates on Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen joins FOX 5's DMV Zone to discuss the fight to get Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States. Editor's Note: We spoke to Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen about his trip to El Salvador to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. We want to clarify — he never said he saw a document proving the U.S. was paying millions to house inmates in El Salvador, but that he's aware of its existence.

WASHINGTON - Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen says $4 million of taxpayer funds have been paid to El Salvador to support the return and detention of migrants — including Abrego Garcia — to El Salvador.

The millions that Van Hollen says have already been paid is part of a larger agreement involving up to $15 million. 

"There’s absolutely no doubt that the Trump administration is paying the government of El Salvador to be complicit," Van Hollen said. "I've got reliable sources, government sources, who say that at least $4 million has been spent. Actually, again, I think the Trump administration has conceded that.

Van Hollen says the payments were taxpayer-funded, and likely part of evidence Abrego Garcia’s legal team is pursuing.

"I would suspect that the lawyers for Abrego-Garcia are seeking those documents as part of discovery," Van Hollen said.

The backstory:

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a 29-year-old El Salvadorian national. He fled his home country and came to the U.S. when he was 16. He has since lived in Maryland. He has three children and a wife, Jennifer Vasquez.

On March 12, Abrego Garcia was arrested in Baltimore after working a shift as a sheet metal apprentice and picking up his 5-year-old son, who has autism and other disabilities, from his grandmother’s house, according to his lawyers. 

He was then sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT which activists say is rife with abuses. Three days later, he was deported.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement say they removed him to a Salvadoran prison over a 2019 accusation that he was in the MS-13 gang. Authorities based the accusation on his tattoos, a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie that officials alleged were emblematic of MS-13. 

Abrego Garcia's ties to MS-13 were never proven and he has repeatedly denied being a gang member. His lawyers argue that the U.S. government "has never produced an iota of evidence" that he is affiliated with MS-13 or any other street gang.

His eventual expulsion to El Salvador violated a U.S. immigration judge’s order in 2019 that shielded him from deportation to his native country. The judge ruled that Abrego Garcia had credible fears of being killed if he returned to El Salvador. 

Abrego-Garcia has no criminal record in the U.S. outside of a few traffic violations. He had regularly checked in with immigration authorities.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials later admitted in a court filing that his deportation was due to an "administrative error" but the Trump administration has since maintained that there is nothing they can do to bring him back.

Big picture view:

Abrego Garcia has become a focal point of the country’s immigration debate.

The case has drawn a tremendous amount of attention, including from the Department of Homeland Security, which has put out press releases calling Abrego Garcia "violent" and saying he "abuses women and children."

The allegations from DHS came after reports and audio surfaced, showing that Abrego Garcia’s wife previously filed protective orders against him. 

Van Hollen has paid close attention to this case, even previously meeting with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia remains in custody.

What they're saying:

"I have found that the Trump administration continues to ignore and thumb its nose at the orders of our federal courts, the federal district court, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and of course, a nine to zero ruling by the Supreme Court – e don't see many of those – to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia. And this is still a very active case right now at the U.S. District-court level in Maryland, and so I'm continuing to work to uphold his constitutional rights," said Van Hollen. "I've made it very clear that I'm not vouching for the man. I'm vouching his rights, because if you can trample over one person's rights, you threaten the rights of everybody else in America."

Editor's Note: We spoke to Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen about his trip to El Salvador to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Van Hollen never said he saw a document proving the U.S. was paying millions to house inmates in El Salvador, but that he's aware of its existence.