United States Senator Chris Van Hollen has met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man wrongly deported to El Salvador last month in a case that has sparked anger in America.

The Democratic Senator was initially denied access to visit the notorious anti-terrorism jail in El Salvador where Kilmar was sent with over 200 other people, as part of a Trump administration clamp down on suspected gang members.

On Thursday night, Van Hollen shared a photo of the meeting on social media platform X. Abrego Garcia was seen dressed in a checkered shirt and baseball cap.

"I said my main goal of this trip (to El Salvador) was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance," the Maryland senator said in the post.

He did not provide any further information on Abrego Garcia's status, including his health, and said that he would give a "full update" after returning to the US.

"I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love," Van Hollen added.

Van Hollen had been in El Salvador for two days before meeting Abrego Garcia. Earlier on Thursday, his car was stopped by soldiers about three kilometers from the prison complex.

"We were told by the soldiers that they had been ordered not to allow us to proceed," the senator told the media.

The White House reiterated the unproven allegation that Abrego Garcia was a member of international criminal gang MS-13, following Van Hollen's meeting with him.

"Chris Van Hollen has firmly established Democrats as the party whose top priority is the welfare of an illegal alien MS-13 terrorist," White House Deputy Press Secretary Kush Desai said, without providing evidence.

US court orders Abrego Garcia to be returned

Abrego Garcia was sent to the Central American country and detained at the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) despite a court order preventing his deportation.

The US Supreme Court has ordered President Donald Trump's administration to facilitate the 29-year-old man's return after Washington admitted to an "administrative error" that led to his deportation.

But the US government contends he is now solely in Salvadoran custody and it has no authority to release a man from a foreign prison.

The administration's response has stirred up the possibility of a constitutional flashpoint, should it defy the highest court.

On Thursday, a federal appeals court said in a scathing order that the Trump administration's claim that it can't do anything to free Abrego Garcia from the prison and return him to the US "should be shocking."

Bukele mocks meeting

El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele appeared to mock the meeting between Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia.

"Now that he's been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador's custody," the Salvadoran leader wrote on X.

In a meeting with Trump at the White House on Monday, Bukele said had no plans to return Abrego Garcia.

Washington is paying millions to El Salavador to lock up deported immigrants alleged to be criminals and gang members. 

Edited by: Zac Crellin