Senator Chris Van Hollen made news last week when he visited El Salvador to find twenty-nine-year-old Kilmar Abrego García, one of the 261 men President Donald Trump forcibly shipped to the Central American nation on March 15 in direct violation of a federal judge’s order. Reputedly in exchange for a $15 million payment from the Trump administration, the Salvadoran president, Nayib Bukele, threw Abrego García and the other 260 kidnappees into CECOT (Terrorism Confinement Center), a notorious “mega-prison” built in 2022 where thousands are caged with no access to legal counsel.

Although Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) admitted that Abrego García’s abduction was the result of an “administrative error” and the US Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the White House must facilitate his return home to Maryland, Trump and Bukele have adamantly refused, instead insisting that Abrego García is a violent gang member and “terrorist” despite no charges being brought against him. After facing initial resistance from the Salvadoran government, last Thursday Van Hollen was able to meet and speak with Abrego García, who had apparently been transferred from CECOT to an undisclosed facility nine days earlier. But Bukele still did not allow the prisoner to return to the United States.

Van Hollen and the federal judiciary are not the only voices demanding Abrego García’s return. Leaders in the US labor movement have also spoken out about his case, as well as those of numerous other immigrant workers whom the Trump administration has recently snatched off the streets, revoked visas from, and imprisoned or deported because of their race, nationality, or political views (especially if they object to the US-Israeli genocide in Palestine). Many of those targeted are union members, including Abrego García, who is an apprentice with the International Association of Sheet Metal, Air, Rail, and Transportation Workers (SMART) Local 100. Besides assisting Abrego García’s wife and children with household expenses and health insurance since his unlawful arrest, SMART has organized a campaign for supporters to write letters to Congress demanding he be brought home.