Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) met on Thursday with a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador.

“His conversation with me was the first communication he’d had with anybody outside of prison since he was abducted,” Van Hollen said in a Friday press conference. “He said he felt very sad about being in a prison because he had not committed any crimes.”

The senator traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday in an attempt to make contact with and advocate for the release of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the deported man. That day, Van Hollen met with El Salvadoran vice president Félix Ulloa, who denied the senator a meeting with Abrego Garcia.

Early Thursday, Van Hollen attempted to visit the Center for Terrorism Confinement, a maximum security prison where Abrego Garcia was being held. But the senator was blocked about two miles away from getting any closer to the prison by soldiers, he said in a video posted on X.

[El Salvador denies Sen. Chris Van Hollen meeting with wrongly deported Maryland man]

But later on Thursday, Van Hollen was told by El Salvadoran officials that a meeting had been set up between Abrego Garcia and the senator.

During their meeting, Van Hollen said he informed Abrego Garcia about the outpour of support from his union members, politicians and people across the country. The senator added that Abrego Garcia said the meeting was the first time he had heard about the attention his case was getting across the country.

“I believe that gave him additional strength,” Van Hollen said.

Abrego Garcia was held in the Center for Terrorism Confinement, a notorious maximum security prison, where Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia was fearful of prisoners in other cell blocks who taunted him. He was later moved to another detention center in Santa Ana with better conditions, but still has no ability to communicate with the outside world, according to Van Hollen.

Abrego Garcia entered the United States illegally around 2011, the Associated Press reported. He then married an American citizen, had three children and became employed as a sheet metal apprentice.

In 2019, a confidential informant accused Abrego Garcia of being an MS-13 gang member in a New York chapter, according to the Associated Press. But he never lived in the state, the outlet reported.

An immigration judge in 2019 protected Abrego Garcia, who lives in Prince George’s County, from being deported to El Salvador because he faced a “clear probability of future persecution.”

[El Salvadoran president said he won’t return wrongfully deported Maryland man]

Despite this order, Abrego Garcia was detained on March 12 by U.S. Immigration and Custom Enforcement officials and later deported to El Salvador. U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration has admitted the deportation was due to an “administrative error.”

The Supreme Court ordered the government on April 10 to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.

The Trump administration wrote in a filing Tuesday that they are willing to enable Abrego Garcia’s return, but would remove his protection order — leaving him at-risk for deportation, the Associated Press reported.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi said at a White House press conference on Wednesday that Abrego Garcia will not return to the country and that the U.S. will send him back to El Salvador if he is returned.

The Supreme Court’s order to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return only meant supplying a plane, Bondi said, not working with El Salvador’s government to coordinate the release.

Trump administration officials have repeatedly claimed that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, an accusation that his family and lawyer deny.

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said during a meeting with Trump at the White House on Monday that he will not return Abrego Garcia to the United States.

Democrats and immigration advocates around the country have protested against the case’s lack of due process, arguing that Abrego Garcia has the right to be seen in a U.S. court.

Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-M.d.), who represents the district Abrego Garcia lives in, said he plans to visit El Salvador in May to press for his release.

“If you deny the constitutional rights of one man, you threaten the constitutional rights and due process for everyone else in America,” Van Hollen said during the Friday press conference.