‘The Trump Administration is Paying’: El Salvador’s VP Explained to Dem Senator Why Country Is Still Jailing Wrongly Deported Migrant

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke to reporters after trying to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland migrant whom the Trump administration admitted to deporting and imprisoning in El Salvador by “error.”

Van Hollen was denied a visit with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador’s notorious gang prison, CECOT, but instead was able to speak with El Salvador’s Vice President Félix Ulloa. Val Hollen told the press that Ulloa noted that the Trump administration is paying for Abrego Garcia to remain in jail. Trump’s border czar, Tom Homan, told Fox News on Tuesday that the U.S. can’t bring back Abrego Garcia as El Salvador has “full authority” over the situation, despite the contract between the two countries, which the Wall Street Journal reported is costing U.S. taxpayers $6 million a year.

“Now the courts of the United States have said there’s no evidence to support the charge that he’s part of MS-13. So I asked the vice president whether or not El Salvador has any evidence that he is part of the MS-13 or has committed a crime. So I ask the vice president if Abrego Garcia has not committed any crimes and the U.S. Courts have found that he was illegally taken from the United States, and the government of El Salvador has no evidence that he was part of MS-13, why is El Salvador continuing to hold him in CECOT?” Van Hollen fumed, adding:

And his answer was that the Trump administration is paying El Salvador, the government of El Salvador to keep him at CECOT. And I pointed out that neither the government of El Salvador nor the Trump administration has presented evidence to support the claim that he’s committed any kind of criminal act. And so why not release Abrego Garcia today?

And he said what President Bukele said the other day at the White House, which is that El Salvador can’t smuggle Mr. Abrego Garcia into the United States. And I said, I’m not asking him to smuggle Mr. Abrego Garcia into the United States. I’m simply asking him to open the door of CECOT and let this innocent man walk out. And I pointed out that the Attorney General of the United States, Pam Bondi, has said that the United States would send a plane to El Salvador to pick him up. And why did she do that?

Because the Supreme Court of the United States, in a ruling of nine to zero, has said that the Trump administration has to facilitate his return to the United States. Now there’s no evidence that the Trump administration is complying with that order. There’s no evidence that they’re complying with that order in fact the United States Embassy here has told me they’ve received no instructions from the Trump administration to help facilitate his release.

So the Trump administration is clearly in violation of American court orders. But that still leaves the question, why is the government of El Salvador continuing to imprison a man where they have no evidence he’s committed any crime and they’ve not been provided any evidence from the United States that he’s committed a crime?

Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters on Wednesday, “He is not coming back to our country. President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story.”

She added, “If he wanted to send him back, we would give him a plane ride back. There was no situation ever where he was going to stay in this country. None, none.”

Watch the clip above and the full comments here.