In this photo released by Senator Van Hollen's press office, Hollen, right, speaks with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland and deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration, in a hotel restaurant in San Salvador, El Salvador, Thursday, April 17, 2025. (Press Office Senator Van Hollen, via AP)2025-04-18T18:59:06Z WASHINGTON (AP) Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen says Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported, told him he has been moved from the notorious Salvadoran prison known as CECOT to a detention center with better conditions.Van Hollen says the Salvadoran man told him in a meeting Thursday that he had shared a cell with 25 prisoners and was fearful of many of them.The senator who visited El Salvador told reporters the case is more than just about Abrego Garcia.Its about protecting the constitutional rights of everybody who resides in the United States, Van Hollen said.Abrego Garcias wife, Jennifer, wiped away tears as Van Hollen spoke of the mans comments about wanting to speak with his wife.THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. APs earlier story follows below.WASHINGTON (AP) Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen was flying home from El Salvador on Friday after meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported there by the Trump administration. Its unclear what will happen next in the case. More Democrats have said they will fly to El Salvador to push for his release, but the partisan pressure hasnt yielded any results. President Donald Trump and El Salvadors President Nayib Bukele have dug in on keeping Abrego Garcia out of the United States, even as officials in Trumps Republican administration have called his deportation a mistake and the U.S. Supreme Court has called on the administration to facilitate his return. Bukele posted images of Van Hollens meeting with Abrego Garcia on Thursday and said that the prisoner in the countrys notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, gets the honor of staying in El Salvadors custody. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said he will never live in the United States of America again. The fight over Abrego Garcia is the latest partisan flashpoint as Democrats have struggled to break through and push back during the opening few months of Trumps second time in office. Democrats say the fight isnt just about one mans immigration status but about Trumps defiance of the courts that have repeatedly weighed in on the case. A federal appeals court said Thursday in a blistering order that the Trump administrations claim that it cant do anything to free Abrego Garcia from the prison in El Salvador and return him to the United States should be shocking.Republicans arent budgingBut Republicans appear to have only become more determined to keep Abrego Garcia out of the country. They have sharply criticized Van Hollens trip and claimed that Abrego Garcia has ties to the MS-13 gang. His attorneys say the government has provided no evidence of gang involvement and he has never been charged with any crime related to such activity. Democrats have time and again prioritized politics over the safety and security of Americans, Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas said in a statement Friday. It is utterly divorced from reality. Van Hollen, who will talk to reporters after landing in the Washington area later Friday, has said he wont stop fighting for the release of Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland. This is about bringing home a man they ADMIT shouldve never been abducted, Van Hollen posted on X.The Democratic senator posted a photo of his meeting with Abrego Garcia on Thursday evening but did not provide an update on his status. He said he had called Abrego Garcias wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, to pass on a message of love and would provide a full update upon his return.Its unclear how the meeting was arranged, where they met or what will happen to Abrego Garcia. Vasquez Sura said in a statement released by an advocacy group that we still have so many questions, hopes, and fears. After days of denying that he knew much about Abrego Garcia, Trump on Friday said he knew Abrego Garcia was unbelievably bad and called him an illegal alien and a foreign terrorist.The president also responded Friday with a social media post saying Van Hollen looked like a fool yesterday standing in El Salvador begging for attention. Lots of Congress members are visiting the prison, or tryingSeveral House Republicans have visited the notorious gang prison in support of the Trump administrations efforts. Rep. Riley Moore, a West Virginia Republican, posted Tuesday evening that hed visited the prison where Abrego Garcia is being held. I leave now even more determined to support President Trumps efforts to secure our homeland, Moore wrote on social media.U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials acknowledged in a court filing earlier this month that Abrego Garcias deportation was an administrative error. The governments acknowledgment sparked immediate uproar from immigration advocates, but White House officials have dug in on the allegation that hes a gang member.The fight has also played out in contentious court filings, with repeated refusals from the government to tell a judge what it plans to do, if anything, to repatriate him. The three-judge panel from the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously refused Thursday to suspend the judges decision to order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials and said the judiciary will be hurt by the constant intimations of its illegitimacy while the executive branch will lose much from a public perception of its lawlessness. Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, nominated by President Ronald Reagan, a Republican, wrote that he and his two colleagues cling to the hope that it is not nave to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos.Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the U.S. more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants whom Trump administration officials have accused of gang activity and violent crimes and placed them inside the countrys maximum-security gang prison just outside San Salvador.