‘He Was Traumatized’: Van Hollen Describes His Meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia
Senator reports on meeting after he touches down returning from El Salvador
The Maryland man who was taken off the street near his home and wrongly deported to El Salvador “was traumatized” by the events that led him to his detention at one of the most notorious prisons in the Western Hemisphere.
That’s according to Sen Chris Van Hollen, the Democratic lawmaker from Maryland who finally was allowed to visit with his constituent in a last-minute meeting after having been denied the opportunity.
Van Hollen reported on his trip this week to El Salvador on behalf of the wrongly imprisoned man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is being held at CECOT, a prison in El Salvador known for human rights abuses.
Van Hollen made those first remarks about his trip at a news conference at the airport shortly after he landed in the United States.
The Trump administration is ignoring an order from the US Supreme Court to return Abrego Garcia to the United States. Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador to intervene on behalf of Abrego Garcia, and was finally allowed to meet with the wrongly imprisoned man.
“My principal mission was to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I told his wife, Jennifer, and his family that I would do everything in my power to make that happen,” Van Hollen said. “And last night, at about 6:40 P.M., El Salvador time, 8:45 P.M. here on the East Coast, I called Jennifer to tell her that I had met with Kilmar, and I told her what he said to me, which was — first and foremost — that he missed her and his family. And as he said that, you could see a tear go down his cheek.”
He said that he had rebuffed multiple times in requests to meet with Abrego Garcia, and actually was getting ready to leave the capital city of San Salvador when word came that they would be allowed to meet.
Abrego Garcia was brought to Van Hollen’s hotel.
“And after that meeting, as I said, I called his wife, Jennifer, to report on some of the news of that meeting,” the senator said, adding, “And now I‘m going to report to all of you about our discussion.
“When I told him that his wife and family sent their love and were fighting for Kilmar to return home every day, he said that he was worried about all of you,” Van Hollen said to Abrego Garcia’s family and friends who had gathered to meet the senator. “That was his response. How are you dealing with this horrible ordeal and nightmare for the family?
“He said that thinking of you, members of his family, is what gave him the strength to persevere — to keep going day to day — even under these awful circumstances,” Van Hollen said. “He spoke several times about your five-year-old son who has autism. Five-year-old son who was in the car in Maryland when Kilmar was pulled over by U.S. government agents and handcuffed, his five-year-old son was in the car at that time. He told me that he was taken to Baltimore first. I assume that was the Baltimore detention center. He asked to make a phone call from there to let people know what had happened to him, but he was denied that opportunity.
“He said he was later taken with some others from Baltimore to a detention center in Texas, and at some point thereafter — I don‘t know whether it was a period of hours or days — he was handcuffed, shackled and put on a plane along with some others where they couldn‘t see out of the windows,” the senator added. “There was no way to see where they were going in the plane. They didn‘t know for sure where they were going.
“They landed in El Salvador and he was taken to CECOT prison. He was placed in a cell with, if I recall correctly, and don‘t hold me to it, about 25 other prisoners at CECOT,” he added. “He said he was not afraid of the other prisoners in his immediate cell, but that he was traumatized by being at CECOT and fearful of many of the prisoners in other cell blocks who called out to him and taunted him in various ways.
“He told me, and this was yesterday, that eight days ago, so I guess nine days ago from today, he was moved to another detention center in Santa Ana, where the conditions are better,” Van Hollen said. “But he said, despite the better conditions, he still has no access to any news from the outside world and no ability to communicate with anybody in the outside world.
“His conversation with me was the first communication he‘d had with anybody outside of prison since he was abducted,” he said. “He said he felt very sad about being in a prison because he had not committed any crimes.”
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