Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Friday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia told him when they met in El Salvador that he's been moved from the prison he'd been held in for almost three weeks to a detention center with better conditions. Van Hollen provided details of the meeting the day before to reporters in Washington, the New York Times reports, saying that the man wrongly deported by the Trump administration told him he's been traumatized by the experience. When the senator recounted Abrego Garcia's statements about wanting to talk to his wife, Jennifer Abrego Garcia wiped away tears, per the AP.
Van Hollen described the stagecraft involved in the meeting. The Salvadoran government wanted it to take place "by the side of a pool," he said. "They wanted to create the appearance that life was just lovely for Kilmar." He also addressed a social media rumor that the two of them had sipped margaritas as they talked, per the BBC. The drinks were put there by government officials, he said, to make it look like they were enjoying a cocktail, but neither of them touched the drinks.
Abrego Garcia is now being held in a lower-level facility in Santa Ana, Van Hollen said. "He said that the conditions were better at this new detention center, but he was still in a total blackout," unable to speak to anyone outside. Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia first was taken to Baltimore after being seized, then to a detention facility in Texas. There, he was handcuffed, shackled, and put on a plane with blacked-out windows. Once at the prison, Abrego Garcia was held in a cell with about 25 other prisoners. "He said that he felt very sad to be in a place that's meant for criminals," the senator said. (More Kilmar Abrego Garcia stories.)
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