Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen shares a photo with the man whose return was ordered by the top US court.
An opposition member of the United States Senate has met with the Salvadoran man wrongfully deported to his home country by the Trump administration, in a case that has prompted outrage in the US.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was living in the eastern state of Maryland until he became one of more than 200 people sent to a prison in El Salvador last month as part of Trump’s crackdown on undocumented migrants.
Most of the deportees were suspected members of Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration has declared a “foreign terrorist organisation”.
But Justice Department lawyers later admitted that Garcia, who is married to a US citizen, was deported due to an “administrative error”.
Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen on Thursday posted on X a photo of his meeting with Garcia, in what appeared to be a dining area.
“I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return,” added Van Hollen, one of the two senators representing Maryland.
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s office also posted images of the meeting of Van Hollen and Garcia, saying mockingly, “Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody.”
The post ended with emojis of the US and El Salvador flags, with a handshake emoji between them.
Al Jazeera’s Shihab Rattansi, reporting from Washington, DC, said Garcia’s deportation is attracting a lot of attention in the US because of what is perceived as “a lack of due process”, adding that a judge had specifically ordered to hold off on the deportation.
On Thursday, a US Appeals Court said it “should be shocking” that the US government is claiming it cannot do anything to free Garcia, after Washington resisted a Supreme Court order to bring him back to the US.
“The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order,” the court said.
In a meeting earlier this week at the White House, US President Donald Trump and his Salvadoran counterpart, Bukele, declared they have no basis to return Garcia to the US.
Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said in a statement released by an advocacy group that she had “so many questions, hopes, and fears”.
Partisan flashpoint
Van Hollen’s trip has become a partisan flashpoint in the US, with the opposition Democrats calling it a cruel consequence of Trump’s disregard for the courts.
Republicans have criticised Democrats for defending the prisoner and argued that his deportation is part of a larger effort to reduce crime.
White House officials have said Garcia has ties to the MS-13 gang, but his lawyers say the government has provided no evidence of that, and Garcia has never been charged with any crime related to such activity.
Asked by reporters on Thursday if he believed Garcia was entitled to due process, Trump said he would refer the questions to his lawyers, adding, “I have to do what they ask me to do.”
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