Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen shares a photo with the man whose performance was ordered by the United States court.
An opposition member of the United States Senate has with the Salvadoran man deported to his country of origin by the Trump administration, in a case that has caused outrage in the United States.
Kilmar Abrego García, 29, lived in the eastern state of Maryland until he became one of the more than 200 people sent to a prison in El Salvador last month as part of Trump’s offensive against undocumented migrants.
The majority of those deported were suspended members of the Venezuelan gang Train El Aragua, which the Trump administration has declared a “foreign terrorist organization.”
But the lawyers of the Department of Justice then admitted that Garcia, who is married to an American citizen, was deported due to an “administrative error.”
Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen published on Thursday in X a photo of his meeting with Garcia, in what seemed to be a dining room.
“I called his wife, Jennifer, to transmit his love message. I hope to provide a complete update of my return,” added Van Hollen, one of the two senators who represent Maryland.
The office of the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, also published images of the meeting of Hollen and Garcia, saying mockingly: “Now that it has been confirmed healthy, it receives the honor of staying under the custody of El Salvador.”
The publication ended with emojis of the flags of the United States and El Salvador, with a handshake emoji betting on some theme.
Shihab Rattansi of Al Jazeera, who reports from Washington, DC, said that García’s deportation is attracting great attention in the United States due to what is perceived as “lack of due process”, and added that a judge had deportation.
On Thursday, a United States Court of Appeals said that “it should be shocking” that the United States government affirms that it cannot do anything to free Garcia, after Washington resisted an order from the Supreme Court to bring him back to the United States.
“The Government is affirming the right to hide residents of this country in foreign prisons without the appearance of due process that is the basis of our constitutional order,” said the court.
In a meeting earlier this week at the White House, the president of the United States, Donald Trump, and his Salvadoran counterpart, Bukele, declared that they do not have basics to return Garcia to the United States.
García’s wife, Jennifer Vásquez Sura, said in a statement published by a defense group that had “so many questions, hopes and fears.”
Partisan inflammation point
Van Hollen’s trip has become a point of partisan inflammation in the United States, and opposition Democrats described him with a cruel consequence of Trump’s contempt for the courts.
Republicans have criticized the Democrats for defending the prisoner and argued that their deportation is part of a greater effort to reduce crime.
White House officials have said that Garcia has links with the MS-13 gang, but his lawyers say that the government has not provided evidence of that, and Garcia has never been accused of any relationship of crimes with said activity.
Asked by journalists on Thursday if he believed that Garcia had the right to due process, Trump said he would send the questions to his lawyers, adding: “I have to do what they ask me to do.”