Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., mentioned Sunday that his latest journey to El Salvador was not about defending Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident deported regardless of a court docket order, however about defending the Structure.
“I’m not defending the person. I am defending the rights of this man to due course of,” Van Hollen informed ABC Information’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday. “And the Trump administration has admitted in court docket that he was wrongfully detained and wrongfully deported. My mission and my goal is to ensure that we uphold the rule of legislation, as a result of if we take it away from him, we do jeopardize it for everyone else.”
Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador final week to hunt solutions concerning the detention and security of Abrego Garcia, who was deported in March to the nation’s infamous CECOT jail, regardless of a 2019 court docket order prohibiting his elimination as a consequence of security fears. The Trump administration alleged he was affiliated with the MS-13 gang — an accusation his attorneys and his household firmly deny.
Abrego Garcia, who fled from gang threats in El Salvador in 2011, is married to a U.S. citizen and is the daddy of a 5-year-old son with autism. He was apprehended by ICE in Maryland on March 12, transferred to a Texas detention middle, after which deported — one thing the administration later referred to as an “administrative error.” He stays beneath a last order of elimination.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen speaks with ABC Information whereas showing on ‘This Week’ April 20, 2025.
ABC Information
“I believe, sooner or later, the president of El Salvador realized it was wanting actually dangerous to have this one that had been absconded from the streets of Maryland in considered one of their prisons and never capable of talk,” Van Hollen mentioned. “So I ended up getting a name saying, ‘We’ll carry him to your resort,’ and that is how we met.”Initially denied entry to CECOT, Van Hollen had been making ready to go away the nation when he was notified that Abrego Garcia could be dropped at him.
Karl requested the senator what Abrego Garcia shared throughout their assembly.
“He informed me concerning the trauma he had been experiencing, each when it comes to the kidnapping and the truth that he was initially despatched to CECOT, which is that this infamous jail,” Van Hollen mentioned. “He particularly talked about his 5-year-old boy who has autism, as a result of that boy had been within the automobile with him when U.S. brokers had stopped them and handcuffed him after which taken him away.”
Van Hollen additionally criticized the function of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, saying his authorities was “complicit on this unlawful scheme with the Trump administration,” and referred to as it a violation of worldwide legislation to forestall any communication with a prisoner.
“The household hadn’t heard from him. No person had any contact for weeks,” Van Hollen mentioned. “It is a man who’s simply kidnapped off the streets of Maryland, put in a pair airplanes, didn’t know he was going to El Salvador, and leads to probably the most infamous jail.”
The senator additionally addressed questions on optics after Salvadoran authorities reportedly tried to stage the assembly at a resort pool.
“They really wished to have the assembly by the resort pool,” Van Hollen mentioned. “They wished to place me proper overlooking the pool. You’re completely proper that the Salvadoran authorities tried to deceive folks. They tried to make it seem like he was in paradise.”
Karl requested if Van Hollen had walked right into a lure.
“It wasn’t a lure. My objective was to satisfy with him and ensure I may inform his spouse and household he was OK. That was my objective, and I achieved that objective,” the senator mentioned.
Van Hollen additionally weighed in on broader implications for presidential energy.
“It is a one that the US courts have decided was illegally taken from the US,” he mentioned. “And my entire goal right here is to ensure that we observe the rule of legislation, the Structure, due course of, rights….It simply goes to point out the lengths that Bukele and Trump will go to attempt to deceive folks about what this case is all about, and easily complying with the Supreme Court docket order to facilitate his return and ensure he will get due course of.”
Of the Trump administration, Van Hollen mentioned: “Right here’s the place they need to put their details: They need to put it earlier than the court docket. They need to put up or shut up in court docket, as a result of the district court docket choose on this case mentioned, and I quote, ‘They put no proof linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or to every other terrorist exercise.’”
On criticism from Republicans that Democrats are defending a gang member, Van Hollen pushed again forcefully.
“The thought you could’t defend folks’s rights beneath the Structure and battle MS-13 and gang violence is a really harmful thought. That is the thought the president desires to place out. That is why they’re spreading all these lies.” Van Hollen mentioned. “I’d say that anybody that’s not ready to defend the constitutional rights of 1 man after they threaten the constitutional rights of all doesn’t deserve to steer.”
