El Salvador’s government denied Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) request Wednesday to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran man who was deported by the Trump administration in a move that has sparked Democrat outrage and court intervention.

Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador in an attempt to “check on [Abrego Garcia’s] condition — and remind him that we won’t stop fighting until he’s home.” The Democrat said he spoke to Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa and asked why the government is holding Abrego Garcia in a high-security prison for terrorists, Axios reported.

“His answer was that the Trump administration is paying El Salvador, the government of El Salvador to keep him,” Van Hollen said.

The senator added that Ulloa told him that he must make earlier arrangements to visit Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, or CECOT, as the prison is called. When Van Hollen asked if he could speak to Abrego Garcia over the phone, Ulloa said that a phone call must be arranged through the American embassy.

Van Hollen was blasted by the Trump administration for his trip to El Salvador. National Security Adviser Mike Waltz wrote on X, “Democrats miss Biden’s open borders so much they are flying to El Salvador to personally try and bring violent criminals to the United States.”

The Trump administration previously said that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was an “administrative error,” but now the White House is saying that the deportation is justified with White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Stephen Miller blaming a “saboteur” within the Justice Department for stating that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was a mistake.

“He is an illegal alien from El Salvador,” Miller told Fox News host Bill Hemmer on Monday. “In 2019, he was ordered deported. He [has] a final removal order from the United States. These are things that no one disputes. Where is he from? El Salvador. Where is he a resident and citizen of? El Salvador. Is he here illegally? Yes. Does he have a deportation order? Yes.”

The Trump administration has an ongoing deal with El Salvador, which has been accepting deportation flights of alleged illegal immigrants with suspected ties to violent gangs and holding them in the notorious prison, CECOT. Last month, Abrego Garcia — a Salvadoran the Trump administration alleges is a member of MS-13 — was placed on one of these flights despite a previous order from an immigration judge prohibiting his deportation to El Salvador. While an immigration judge ordered Abrego Garcia to be deported in 2019, citing his likely ties to MS-13, he said the federal government could not send him back to El Salvador because he would likely face persecution there.

The deportation of Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland, has set off an intense court battle with the Supreme Court weighing in last week and partially ruling against the Trump administration. The Supreme Court pointed to the district judge’s order that the Trump administration must “facilitate,” but not necessarily “effectuate,” the return of Abrego Garcia. On Tuesday, U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis gave the Trump administration two weeks to comply with her discovery requests and prove that the administration has sought to bring Abrego Garcia back to the United States.