DULLES, Va. — Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen said an improperly deported Maryland man has been moved to a second Salvadoran prison hours away from where American officials originally believed he was being held.

Van Hollen revealed this and other new details about his closely monitored conversation with 29-year-old Kilmar Abrego Garcia in a news conference moments after landing at Washington Dulles International Airport Friday afternoon.

The men met at the senator’s hotel in El Salvador after officials had initially denied Van Hollen the meeting.

“I think the reason they relented was pretty clear,” he told dozens of reporters gathered inside a terminal at the airport. “They [the Salvadoran government] were feeling the pressure.”

Sleep deprived but glad to be back home in the United States, Van Hollen said he was just about to catch a plane back to the U.S. when members of the Salvadoran government reached out to him through the American Embassy.

Maryland’s senior senator went there to meet with Abrego Garcia and pursue his release back to the U.S.

Met under surveillance

The terms of the meeting with Abrego Garcia were negotiated, and they were surrounded by video cameras as they spoke, Van Hollen said.

“His conversation with me was the first communication he had had with anybody outside of prison since he was abducted,” Van Hollen said.

“I think the reason they relented was pretty clear,” he told dozens of reporters gathered inside a terminal at the airport. “They [the Salvadoran government] were feeling the pressure.”

During their conversation, Abrego Garcia told the senator about his arrest and the lack of information he’d received as he was shipped to the notorious Salvadoran prison.

Abrego Garcia told Van Hollen he was never told why he was being arrested and that he had not committed any crime. After he was taken to a building he believed was in Baltimore, he was handcuffed, shackled and put on a plane with others. They could not see out of the airplane windows, Van Hollen recounted.

“They didn’t know for sure where they were going,” Van Hollen said.

Abrego Garcia then told Van Hollen that he was placed in a cell at the Terrorism Confinement Center, also called CECOT, with about 25 other people. He was not afraid of the people in his cell, but was “traumatized” by being there and by the taunts from those in other cells.

“His conversation with me was the first communication he had had with anybody outside of prison since he was abducted,” Van Hollen said.

Van Hollen also learned that Abrego Garcia had been moved to a prison in Santa Ana where the conditions appeared to be better than at CECOT, but he still has no ability to connect to the outside world or anyone outside of the prison.

But the senator was able to bring a smile to Abrego Garcia’s face when he told him that people in the U.S. were fighting for him.

“I told him that millions of Americans understand that what is happening to him is a threat to their own constitutional rights,” he said.

Abrego Garcia told Van Hollen that besides his freedom, what he wanted most was to speak with his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura.

Vasquez Sura, along with Abrego Garcia’s mother and brother, immigrants rights advocates, and Maryland Democratic lawmakers stood behind Van Hollen as he recalled his trip and conversation.

“Getting a meeting with Kilmar was not easy,” he said.

But he said the meeting didn’t happen without permission from the very top of El Salvador’s government and said he believed President Nayib Bukele must have approved it.

“Look,” he said, “in El Salvador, everything happens because Bukele says it can happen.”

Just one day before the government allowed the meeting, Salvadoran officials had rebuffed Van Hollen’s requests to see Abrego Garcia. But he persisted and drove out to CECOT, where he believed Abrego Garcia was being held.

Soldiers stopped him within a few miles of the prison, which is known for human rights violations.

The senator said he may have been the first, but won’t be the last member of Congress to try to secure Abrego Garcia’s release. Others have announced they’re planning trips, including Maryland Congressman Glenn Ivey.

Trump doubles down

The Trump administration has admitted they mistakenly deported Abrego Garcia more than a month ago, sending him along with other deportees to El Salvador, and said Friday that they will not bring him back.

President Donald Trump on Friday said he knew Abrego Garcia was “unbelievably bad” and called him an “illegal alien” and “foreign terrorist.”

The administration has cited evidence that a previous immigration judge said there was sufficient reason to believe Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13 and called him a violent criminal, but have not provided evidence of any criminal convictions.

Van Hollen read aloud a judge’s ruling knocking down the administration’s claims, saying: “No evidence before the court connects Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or any other criminal organization.”

“In other words put up in court, or shut up,” he said.

Meanwhile, legal experts have argued the heart of the matter is not whether he’s in a gang or not, but rather a violation of due process.

Trump administration officials and top Republicans, including Maryland Rep. Andy Harris, have scrutinized Van Hollen’s efforts to find and free Abrego Garcia.

They and others have now rallied around the idea that they do not want to bring Abrego Garcia back and do not have to return him. That would seemingly fly in the face of the U.S. Supreme Court ruling earlier this month that upheld a lower court order that the Trump administration must facilitate his return to the U.S.

Lawmakers welcome Van Hollen home

Meanwhile, Maryland Democrats have embraced Van Hollen’s actions.

Brittany Marshall, a spokesperson for Gov. Wes Moore said the administration is “proud” of the senator’s efforts to check on the health and well being of Abrego Garcia.

“Due process is the foundation of our constitutional order,” Marshall said. “The Trump Administration should correct its mistake and give Kilmar his day in court.”

Members of the Maryland Legislative Latino Caucus were at the airport terminal to greet Van Hollen. The group held a rally in support of his trip Thursday.

Caucus chair Del. Ashanti Martinez called Van Hollen a “constitutional champion for the rights of all Americans.”

“If what’s happening to Kilmar — if the Trump administration is successful — it can happen to any of us," the Prince George’s County Democrat said.

Del. Joseline Peña-Melnyk called Van Hollen “a hero” for making the trip and said he’s the type of leader needed in this political moment.

“We want to all try to make a difference,” the Democrat representing Anne Arundel and Prince George’s counties said. “And we want to help the family. We want to keep this issue alive.”

Caucus member Peña-Melnyk said the Latino community is “elated” with Van Hollen and said he has brought them hope during a trying time.

“The immigrant community is under siege,” she said. “We need people to speak up, because at the end of the day, we’re human beings.”

The Associated Press contributed to this story.