A Democratic senator will travel to El Salvador on Wednesday to monitor Kilmar Abrego's case and press for his return

Maryland Democratic state Sen. Chris Van Hollen announced Tuesday that he would travel in the morning hours to El Salvador tomorrow, Wednesdayto verify Kilmar Abrego's status and make possible his returnto the United States. Abrego was wrongly deported to the Central American country, in what the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) recognized as an "administrative error". Despite this, both U.S. President Donald Trump and several top officials in his administration have explained that his deportation was no mistake and that it was not even possible to bring him back, even though the Supreme Court recently ordered the U.S. government to "facilitate" Abrego's return as soon as possible.

"Mr. Abrego Garcia was illegally abducted by the Trump Admin and, by their own admission, wrongly deported to El Salvador. He shouldn’t have to spend another second away from his family. I'm flying to El Salvador tomorrow morning to check on his condition and discuss his return," the Democratic Party senator wrote on his X account.

Prior to his X message, Van Hollen issued a statement in which he had already declared his intention to fly to El Salvador this Wednesday, after arguing that the Trump Administration had failed in its obligation to secure his release from the maximum security prison CECOT. "Following his abduction and unlawful deportation, U.S. federal courts have ordered the safe return of my constituent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States. It should be a priority of the U.S. government to secure his safe release, which is why tomorrow I am traveling to El Salvador. My hope is to visit Kilmar and check on his wellbeing and to hold constructive conversations with government officials around his release. We must urgently continue working to return Kilmar safely home to Maryland," said the senator, who added that Congress will use the Trump administration's budget request to put pressure on El Salvador if Abrego is not released.

Democratic entourage

On Monday, several Democrats, including Florida Rep. Maxwell Frost and Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari, announced they would create a comitive to accompany the Maryland senator to El Salvador to try to materialize Abrego's release. "We must all stand as a united front against the kidnapping and illegal detention of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador. Senator, I am willing to join you and help Organize other members of the House to do the same," Frost wrote in a post on his X account in which he tagged Van Hollen.

The senator's announcement came a day after a meeting between Trump and the president of El Salvador Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office, where the Salvadoran leader told reporters that he would not return Abrego back to the U.S. country, despite the DOJ's acknowledgment that he had been mistakenly deported to El Salvador, and despite the Supreme Court order. "How can I return him to the U.S., like smuggle him into the U.S.? Of course I'm not going to do it. The question is absurd," Bukele asked.