Van Hollen says he met with the country's vice-president who told him his government could not return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
The Trump administration has provided proof that Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally back in 2012 and it has connected him to the vicious MS-13 gang.
Also, Fox News reports it has court documents in which the wife of Abrego Garcia in Maryland, Jennifer Vasquez, has gone to court in recent years to file violence complaints against him.
In the filing, written in Vasquez’s own handwriting, she alleges Abrego Garcia repeatedly beat her, writing: "At this point, I am afraid to be close to him. I have multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he [has] left me."
Van Hollen’s trip has become a flashpoint in the U.S. The Trump administration sharply criticized it, while Democrats have rallied around Abrego Garcia.
Trump officials reiterated Wednesday that he would not be returned to the United States. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt held a press briefing with the mother of a Maryland woman, Rachel Morin, who was killed by a fugitive from El Salvador in 2023.
“It’s appalling and sad that Sen. Van Hollen and the Democrats applauding his trip to El Salvador today are incapable of having any shred of common sense or empathy for their own constituents and our citizens," Leavitt said at the briefing.
Tom Homan, Trump's border czar, said on Fox News' “Fox & Friends” that he is “disgusted that any congressional representative is going to run to El Salvador.”
“We got rid of a dangerous person, an El Salvadoran national was returned to the country of El Salvador, so he is home,” Homan said.
