BBC News
A Maryland man who the Trump administration mistakenly deported to El Salvador has been moved to a new prison, US Senator Chris Van Hollen has said.
The Democratic senator was speaking after returning from El Salvador where he met Kilmar Ábrego García, who was sent to the notorious mega-jail Cecot (Centre for the Confinement of Terrorism) last month.
Mr Ábrego García was “traumatised” and fearful of other prisoners while inside the facility, Van Hollen said, adding that he was moved to another facility in the country over a week ago.
The Supreme Court has ordered the government to “facilitate” his return, however Trump administration officials have continued to push back against the order.
The White House accuses him of being member of the transnational Salvadorian gang MS-13, a designated foreign terrorist organisation, and has said he would not return to the US.
Mr Ábrego García has never been convicted of a crime. His family and attorneys have fiercely denied he is a member of MS-13.
Chris Van Hollen said he was initially blocked from meeting Mr Ábrego García by Salvadoran authorities. Later, he said government officials helped facilitate a meeting and Mr Ábrego García was brought to the senator’s hotel.
“His conversation with me was the first communication that he had with anybody outside of prison since he was abducted,” Van Hollen said.
“He said he felt very sad about being in a prison because he had not committed any crimes.”
Van Hollen added that conditions in the new prison, in Salvadoran city of Santa Ana, were better.
“He still has no access to any news from the outside world and no ability to communicate with anybody in the outside world,” Van Hollen said.
Mr Ábrego García’s case is part of a simmering showdown between the Trump administration and the US courts system on the issue of immigration.
A separate feud has been brewing after a judge said he could hold the Trump administration in contempt for its “wilful disregard” of his order barring deportation flights.
Multiple judges – including a unanimous US Supreme Court ruling – said the government should facilitate Mr Ábrego García’s return to the US. But the White House has insisted the Maryland man 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,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.
ReutersPresident Donald Trump told reporters at the White House Mr Ábrego García was “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 follow through with the court process and 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 allegedly 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 evoked the law to deport hundreds so far by arguing 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.
