Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen, and possible 2028 Presidential contender, went above and beyond the standard sharply worded social media posts or firmly worded official statements and actually GOT ON A PLANE and went straight down to El Salvador to see wrongly deported (ie, kidnapped) Maryland father, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
A reminder, the Trump administration actually admitted in court that Garcia should not have been sent to El Salvador and was ordered to facilitate his return by the Supreme Court. This far, they have blatantly ignored this ruling…and have actually raised the temperature by claiming, without evidence, that Garcia is a MS-13 member.
Van Hollen made the rounds on the Sunday news shows:
- Fox News Sunday — Van Hollen
- NBC’s Meet the Press — Van Hollen
- CNN’s State of the Union — Van Hollen
- CBS’ Face the Nation — Van Hollen
- ABC’s This Week — Van Hollen
He said pretty much the same thing in all interviews and everything he said was fact-based, unbiased and stressed the importance of DUE PROCESS.
Here is a bit of what he said during some critical exchanges with Shannon Bream, host of FOX News Sunday:
BREAM: One law enforcement source I talked to said, if you don’t want to be associated with the gang, you’re not gonna wear the indicative clothing, you’re not gonna hang out with them. This is the report of the police department from 2019.
VAN HOLLEN: So Shannon, they need to put up or shut up in court. Let me read you, and I brought it with me. I want to read you what Judge Xinis of the Federal District court just found on April 16th. She said that they had presented no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or to any other terrorist activity, unquote. If they’ve got evidence, you put it before the court. Don’t spread it all over social media if you don’t think it can stand the test of court scrutiny. They’re trying to change the subject. The subject, as you said, was they are disobeying the court order and they admitted themselves in court that he’d been wrongfully, wrongfully abducted and taken to El Salvador. Instead of fixing the problem, they fired the lawyer.
BREAM: Well, he’s on suspension, and I did ask the attorney general about that. OK, so this finding though was accepted by an immigration judge determined in April of 2019, so the determination that the respondent is a gang member appears to be trustworthy and is supported by other evidence in the record. And then from there there was in December of 2019 on appeal, the Board of Immigration Appeals also said the immigration judge appropriately considered allegations of gang affiliation against the respondent in determining that he has not demonstrated that is not a danger to property or persons and in that proceeding, legal proceeding, the burden is on him to prove that and the judge, the appeal both say he didn’t do it and they believe the evidence they saw from police, as you say, and you just indicated that they never affirmatively found that he was a member of MS-13.
VAN HOLLEN: They never, of course, charged him with any crime and what the judge ultimately did in the immigration case was Say that his life would be at risk from other gangs, from gangs if he was returned to El Salvador, which is why he got a work permit, which is why the members of his union, the sheet metal workers are demanding his return. You know, you don’t get a work permit if you are not legally in the country at the time.
BREAM: He wasn’t legally here.
VAN HOLLEN: He’s e came at age 16. With his family and no one’s contested the fact that he fled El Salvador because they were afraid of gang violence and then he came to the United States and in 2019 the courts found that to send him back to El Salvador would put his life at risk and the Trump administration did not appeal, did not appeal that decision, which is why he got a work permit and why he’s working to raise his three kids.
So let’s be really clear that the fundamental issue right now is the fact that the Trump administration is ignoring court orders, and if you deny one person their constitutional rights, you threaten the constitutional rights of everybody. I can’t understand why conservatives or certainly libertarians would accept the idea that someone can be deprived of their liberty without due process.
BREAM: Did you ask him if he has any association with MS-13?
VAN HOLLEN: I didn’t ask him directly because he’s answered that question repeatedly as his lawyers have. My purpose in going there was to number one, see if he was alive, see if he was healthy, take his story. As I said, they have litigated this case this case on MS-13, and it was the judge in the most recent case who says put up or shut up. So that’s what I say to President Trump and others put up or shut up.
Put up or shut up, indeed. In court, Not on social media. Not with stupid doctored photos. Go to court, testify under oath, show evidence. Due process for all.
Editor’s note: Requesting asylum is not the same as entering the US illegally. Asylum is a process by which people can flee countries where they are being persecuted or are otherwise in danger. In this case, Garcia fled El Salvador, but should have turned himself into authorities and requested asylum. Instead he went to his brother’s house, which was a critical mistake. However, once he was arrested in 2019, he appeared before a judge, pled his case for asylum and was granted the right to live and work here. People are not “illegal.” They are human beings who come to this country as a refuge. – Karoli