Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen defended his El Salvador trip to meet with deported illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Van Hollen, 66, got his start in politics as a staffer for former Maryland U.S. Sen. Charles Mathias in the 1980s, going on to staff the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and, later, Maryland Gov. William Donald Schaefer.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Kilmar Abrego García, the Maryland man wrongly deported to El Salvador, has “experienced trauma, he said he’s sad every day,”