SAN SALVADOR (Reuters) -A Maryland congressman said on Monday he was unable to meet one of his constituents, a Salvadoran man wrongly deported from the United States to a prison in El Salvador.
Representative Glenn Ivey, a Democrat, had traveled to El Salvador to meet Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is being held in the notorious CECOT prison for gang members.
Ivey, speaking in a social media video that appeared to have been filmed outside the prison, said that he and Abrego Garcia’s lawyer had not been allowed inside.
“If there is nothing to hide, cut the crap,” Ivey said.
He added that a formal request had been made with the Salvadoran ambassador to the U.S. ahead of the visit, but when he arrived at the prison officials told him he needed a permit to enter.
Abrego Garcia’s case has pitted the defiant administration of U.S. President Donald Trump against the courts, including the Supreme Court, raising the prospect of a constitutional conflict after the government acknowledged he was deported because of an administrative error.
El Salvador’s government has also refused to return him. The government on Monday did not immediately respond to a request for comment about Ivey’s visit.
The White House has repeated the unproven accusation that Abrego Garcia is part of MS-13, which the administration has designated a foreign terrorist group.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers deny any gang affiliation, saying he left El Salvador at 16 to escape gang-related violence and received a protective order in 2019 to continue living in the United States.
U.S. Senator Chris Van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, was able to meet Abrego Garcia in April. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele showed photos of the two meeting at a hotel, seated with margaritas.
Van Hollen decried the set-up as an attempt by Bukele to contradict the narrative that Abrego Garcia was being held in harsh conditions.
(Reporting by Nelson Renteria; Writing by Kylie Madry; Editing by Kate Mayberry)
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