El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele trolled Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen in a social media post on Thursday, claiming that Van Hollen and wrongly-deported Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia sipped "margaritas" on a restaurant patio after Van Hollen finally secured a meeting.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who arrived in the U.S. in 2012, was labeled a threat in 2019 due to an alleged connection to the MS-13 gang. He spent months in detention before an immigration judge found he had a credible fear of persecution—not from MS-13, but from a rival group, Barrio 18, which he said had been extorting his family.
Following that ruling, Abrego Garcia was released and reunited with his wife and son, both U.S. citizens. However, without warning, immigration authorities detained and deported him last month. He has consistently denied any affiliation with MS-13.
The Justice Department has since acknowledged that his removal violated a 2019 court order, calling it an error. Nonetheless, officials maintain they still consider him a threat based on the original allegations and have ignored a Supreme Court order to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S.
Van Hollen decided to fly down to El Salvador on Wednesday to check on Abrego Garcia's well-being.
The unusual setting for Van Hollen's meeting with Abrego Garcia appeared to be a pointed response from Bukele to Democrats and others in the U.S. who had spent days speculating that Abrego Garcia might have been injured—or even killed—while in custody at the notorious CECOT mega prison complex.
Bukele, boasting of this meeting in "tropical paradise," said on X:
"Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador! Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody.”
You can see his posts and the photos below.
Nayib Bukele
Nayib Bukele
Nayib Bukele
A person familiar with the matter said a Bukele aide deliberately set the two glasses—garnished with cherries and salted rims—in front of Mr. Van Hollen and Mr. Abrego Garcia during their meeting to help stage the photo.
Many have condemned Bukele for the staged photo-op and demanded Abrego Garcia's return.
The in-person meeting followed multiple attempts by Van Hollen to gain access to Abrego Garcia, which he said were denied. On Wednesday, Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa informed the senator that he could neither meet with nor call Abrego Garcia. And during a Thursday interview on All Things Considered, Van Hollen revealed he was stopped by soldiers while en route to the CECOT prison.
That same day, as Van Hollen pressed Salvadoran officials to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., the White House reinforced its stance against him.
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said Abrego Garcia would be deported again in the event he is returned. She said "nothing will change the fact that Abrego Garcia will never be a Maryland father, he will never live in the United States of America again."
Leavitt accused Van Hollen of “potentially using taxpayer dollars” to finance his trip and criticized Democrats for backing Abrego Garcia’s release instead of supporting stronger border security measures, which she argued would better protect Americans.
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images