Maryland Democrat says he was ‘stopped by soldiers’ from entering Salvadoran prison where Abrego Garcia is being held

Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Thursday he was denied entry to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador when he tried to check on the “health and wellbeing” of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Thursday he was denied entry to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador when he tried to check on the “health and wellbeing” of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. The Maryland Democrat told reporters in San Salvador that he he had been “stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint about three kilometers” from the notorious CECOT prison, where he had driven with Chris Newman, a lawyer for Abrego Garcia’s wife and mother. “There’s been no ability to learn about [Abrego Garcia’s] health and wellbeing,” Van Hollen said. The US lawmaker traveled to the Central American nation on Wednesday in a push for the man’s release. Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national and Maryland resident, was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March, and in the weeks since, his case has become a flashpoint in the fight over the Trump administration’s hardline deportation push. Van Hollen said that denying Abrego Garcia access to his lawyers “is a violation of international law.” “El Salvador is a party to the international covenant on civil and political rights. El Salvador has signed and ratified that covenant. And that covenant says, and I quote, ‘A detained or imprisoned person shall be entitled to communicate and consult with his legal counsel,’” he said.