Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele took to social media late Thursday to mock Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-Md.) meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported by the Trump administration last month due to an "administrative error."

Van Hollen cited concern about the status of Abrego Garcia, who previously fled El Salvador due to persecution and was living in Maryland, being housed as inmate at the Central American country's most notorious prison as a reason for his visit. He said he would conduct a personal wellness check on the father, who had been approved to stay in the U.S. under a 2019 protection order.

The Maryland Democrat was denied an opportunity to speak and meet with the wrongly deported man a day earlier.

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the “death camps” & “torture”, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador,” Bukele wrote Thursday in a post on social platform X.

His message was accompanied with images of the two embracing in a space with tables and water. Abrego Garcia was in civilian clothes. 

“Now that he’s been confirmed healthy, he gets the honor of staying in El Salvador’s custody,” Bukele wrote in a subsequent post. 

Van Hollen's trip was sparked by concern among Democrats about a lack of due process for Abrego Garcia and the administration's refusal to abide by a Supreme Court order to facilitate his return to the U.S.

Despite legal rulings, White House officials say they were unable to force Salvadoran authorities to liberate him. 

“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,” Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters earlier this week.

Bukele suggested during his visit to the White House on Monday that he also does not have the power to release Abrego Garcia.

“How could I return him to the United States? I smuggle him to the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous,” Bukele said, describing Abrego Garcia as a terrorist.

“I don’t have the power to return him to the United States. I’m not releasing — I mean, we’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country,” he added.

President Trump and senior officials have consistently argued that Abrego Garcia is linked to the MS-13 gang and in recent days have doubled down on their decision to send him to El Salvador, despite denials from the family and the White House's acknowledgement earlier this month that he was wrongfully deported.