Maryland congressman Glenn Ivey travels to El Salvador to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia after deportation
Another Maryland lawmaker is heading to El Salvador to check on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who was mistakenly deported from the U.S. despite a court order that should have blocked his removal.
Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey is set to leave for El Salvador Friday evening from Dulles International Airport. His trip comes one month after Sen. Chris Van Hollen visited El Salvador and met with Abrego Garcia.
"It's clear that the government made a mistake," Ivey said in an April social media post. "In fact, they admitted it. So he's being held illegally. The government has the authority to bring him back."
Abrego Garcia remains in custody in El Salvador despite federal and Supreme Court orders directing the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the U.S.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia deported to Salvadoran prison
Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally and lived in Maryland for 14 years before he was detained by immigration agents on March 12.
Three days later, he was deported to the Terrorism Confinement Center, a supermax prison in El Salvador.
Abrego Garcia was deported despite a court order that prohibited his removal.
The withholding of the removal order was granted to him in 2019. The order is meant to protect people from being deported to countries where they could face threats, in his case, from local gangs.
U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Abrego Garcia's deportation was due to an "administrative error."
Abrego Garcia's deportation sparks legal battle
Maryland leaders and legal experts have raised concerns about the right to due process in Abrego Garcia's case.
As the case plays out in court, the Trump administration has repeatedly alleged that Abrego Garcia is affiliated with the transnational MS-13 gang.
Abrego Garcia's legal team and his family have argued that these claims are false, citing his clean criminal record in the U.S. and in El Salvador.
"At this point, I'm just assuming that [the Trump administration is] scared to bring him back because they'll have to go to court and explain all of the false statements that they've apparently made about him," Ivey said in April.
Earlier in May, the Trump administration invoked the state secrets privilege, allowing federal officials to withhold information about the case.
Abrego Garcia's attorneys have since accused the government of failing to comply with court orders about his return.
Abrego Garcia meets with Sen. Van Hollen
In April, Van Hollen visited El Salvador to check on Abrego Garcia's well-being.
By then, Abrego Garcia had been transferred from the supermax prison to an administrative building where he has his own room with a bed, rather than a prison cell, court documents show.
Van Hollen met Abrego Garcia at a hotel in El Salvador after the senator was initially denied meetings by Salvadoran leaders.
After returning to the U.S., Van Hollen accused U.S. and Salvadoran government leaders of spreading misinformation about Abrego Garcia's case.
He said U.S. leaders have been flooding social media with misinformation in an effort to focus the conversation on gang violence rather than due process.
The senator also accused the Salvadoran government of being complicit in violating U.S. Constitutional rights by keeping Abrego Garcia in custody and joining in the effort to spread misinformation.
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