Trump Admin Slams Democrat Sen. Van Hollen for El Salvador Trip

The Trump administration denounced Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (D-MD) mission to return a deported MS-13 gang member to the United States from El Salvador, calling him out for caring about illegal aliens over American citizens like Rachel Morin.

Democrats have continued to drum up support for Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran national who entered the U.S. illegally when he was 16, since he was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) agents in Maryland and transported to El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in March. 

ICE acknowledged that Abrego Garcia was mistakenly placed on that particular flight, as an immigration judge had previously granted his request for “withholding of removal” back to El Salvador based on his “well-founded” fear of persecution by MS-13 rival gang Barrio 18, Breitbart News reported.

In short, Abrego Garcia was “removable,” but not to his country of origin, which is El Salvador.

Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs Tricia McLaughlin shared the facts on X, reporting that the man was identified as a member of MS-13 by two different judges:

Van Hollen’s pledge to go to the Latin American country himself came after the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return — a request that both President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele have resisted. 

When a reporter asked him if he would return Abrego Garcia as ordered by the court while he visited with Trump at the White House on Monday, Bukele said he “can’t smuggle a terrorist into the United States”:

“I’ve been clear: if President Bukele doesn’t want to meet here in D.C., then I intend to go to El Salvador this week to check on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s condition and discuss his release,” Van Hollen announced in a Monday X post.

Other Democrats threw their support behind Van Hollen, with Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Robert Garcia (D-CA), and Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) signaling they will “organize other members of the House to do the same.”

Van Hollen landed in El Salvador on Wednesday morning, stating that he hopes to “meet with Salvadoran officials and with Kilmar himself.”

“He was illegally abducted and needs to come home,” the senator added:

The White House’s rapid response team simply replied, “He’s already home”:

In another post slamming Van Hollen’s travels to El Salvador, Trump’s team put him on blast for remaining silent on Rachel Morin, a Maryland woman who was raped and murdered by an illegal Salvadoran MS-13 gang member in August 2023:

“Chris has posted at least ten times about saving an illegal immigrant gang member. Number of times Chris has posted about Rachel Morin? Zero,” Trump’s team noted.

Trump’s DHS also called out the senator, saying he has “done more to bring a MS-13 gang member, human trafficker and illegal alien back to Maryland than he has to help keep his American constituents safe or advocate for the victims of these vicious gangs like MS-13”:

“While Senator Van Hollen and the mainstream media peddle a sob story about a brutal MS-13 gang member, Secretary Noem stands with the victims of illegal alien crime, like Maryland mom Rachel Morin,” DHS wrote on X. “We hear far too much about the gang members and criminals sob stories and not enough about their victims.”

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) joined in on the pushback against Van Hollen, saying Abrego Garcia is “where he belongs”:

Olivia Rondeau is a politics reporter for Breitbart News based in Washington, DC. Find her on X/Twitter and Instagram.