San Salvador, El Salvador - A Democratic senator said Wednesday that El Salvador had denied his request to release a US resident whose wrongful deportation triggered a political firestorm over President Donald Trump's hard-line immigration policies.

Chris Van Hollen said he had also been refused a visit or phone call with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is imprisoned in his native country despite a federal judge's order, backed by the Supreme Court, for his return to the US.

Van Hollen said he had asked Vice President Felix Ulloa when they met why Abrego Garcia was still locked up in the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) if he had committed no crime and El Salvador had no evidence that he was a member of street gang MS-13.

"His answer was that the Trump administration is paying El Salvador, the government of El Salvador, to keep him at CECOT," Van Hollen, who represents Abrego Garcia's home state of Maryland, told reporters during a visit to the Central American nation.

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Washington has previously said it paid President Nayib Bukele's administration several million dollars to keep deportees in detention.

"I'm asking President Bukele… to do the right thing and allow Mr. Abrego Garcia to walk out of prison, a man who's charged with no crime, convicted of no crime, and who was illegally abducted from the United States," Van Hollen said.

A legal US resident, Abrego Garcia was protected by a 2019 court order determining that he could not be deported to El Salvador, but he was sent there around a month ago.

The Trump administration has admitted its mistake, and has been ordered by the Supreme Court to "facilitate" the 29-year-old's return.

But the administration – pressed on what action it was taking to remedy its error in lower court hearings – has not announced any efforts toward Abrego Garcia's return.

Bukele said during a White House visit on Monday he did not have the power to return Abrego Garcia to the US.

Trump told reporters he did not have the authority to intervene, leaving the man in limbo.