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       WASHINGTON: US Sen-a-tor Chris Van Hollen said on Friday he had met with Kilmar Abrego Gar-cia, the El Salvadoran man mistakenly deported and being held in a prison in El Salvador, at a hotel after initial requests to meet with him were denied.

       Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, said Abrego Gar-cia was brought to his hotel before Van Hollen left the country on Thurs-day, after the lawmaker had tried to go to the notorious CECOT prison for gang members, where Abrego Garcia had been held.

       The senator told a press conference at the Washing-ton area Dulles Airport that he and the lawyer for Ab-r-ego Garcia’s family were pulled over by soldiers 3 km outside the prison and told they were not allowed to proceed further.

       Later in the afternoon, El Salvadoran officials brought Abrego Garcia, a resident of Maryland, to the hotel where Van Hollen was staying. The case has pitted a defiant Trump administration agai-nst the courts, including the Supreme Court, raising the prospect of a constitutional conflict after the government acknowle-dged he was depor-ted because of an administrative error. “He said he was traumatised by being at CECOT,” Van Hollen said he was told by Abrego Garcia, who said he had been put in a cell with 25 other people for weeks and had not spoken to anyone outside of the jail since being detained.

       Published in Dawn, April 20th, 2025