US senator presses Trump on wrongly detained man after El Salvador cites US funds

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, Cesar Abrego Garcia, and Cecilia Garcia de Abrego, the family of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, react as U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) holds a press conference after returning from a visit to El Salvador, where he advocated for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man deported from the U.S. without due process by the Trump administration, as an alleged MS-13 gang member and sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a maximum security prison in El Salvador, at Dulles International Airport in Sterling, Virginia, U.S., April 18, 2025. REUTERS/Kent Nishimura/File Photo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) -El Salvador is only detaining an El Salvadoran man mistakenly deported from Maryland because the country is receiving U.S. payments, U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen said in a letter to the White House on Tuesday.

Van Hollen, a Democrat from Maryland, said his recent meeting with El Salvador's vice president shows President Donald Trump's failure to follow court orders.