Headlines for April 18, 2025

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen confirmed Thursday night he met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father whom the Trump administration says they forcibly transferred to an El Salvador mega-prison last month by “administrative error.” Van Hollen shared a photo of the two seated together at a table in what appears to be a hotel restaurant. Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador Wednesday in a push for Abrego Garcia’s release but had initially been barred from having any contact with him. Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer, celebrated the meeting, saying in a statement, “My children and my prayers have been answered.”

Meanwhile, in response to Van Hollen’s visit with Abrego Garcia, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said on social media, “Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody.” Bukele also wrote, “Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!”
Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland for almost 15 years, after fleeing gang violence in El Salvador, and is a sheet metal worker.

This comes as a federal appeals court ruled the Trump administration must comply with a judge’s order for government officials to be deposed over Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case. That judge, Paula Xinis, is weighing contempt proceedings against Trump officials. In the unanimous ruling Thursday, 4th Circuit Court Judge Harvie Wilkinson, who was appointed by Ronald Reagan, wrote the Trump administration’s acts are “shocking,” writing, “The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order.”