Senator Says Maryland Migrant’s Deportation Is a ‘Constitutional Crisis’ for America

Fresh off his return from visiting Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, Senator Van Hollen now says he sees the situation as a constitutional crisis. The White House is currently refusing to follow a Supreme Court order that stated they must “facilitate” Mr. Abrego’s return to the United States, even though they have said that he would be deported through the regular proceedings if he is allowed to return.Mr. Van Hollen went to El Salvador last week to meet with Mr. Abrego, though he was initially blocked by the country’s vice president from entering the maximum security prison known as CECOT where Mr. Abrego has been held for the past month. Eventually, Mr. Abrego was released from the prison and was allowed to meet with Mr. Van Hollen. “I am not defending the man,” Mr. Van Hollen told ABC News on Sunday. “I’m defending the rights of this man to due process.” “The Trump administration has admitted in court that he was wrongfully detained and wrongfully deported. My mission and my purpose is to make sure that we uphold the rule of law,” he declared. The Maryland senator completed what is known as the “Full Ginsberg” on Sunday which is a feat accomplished when one appears on all five of the major Sunday shows in a single day. The moniker is a reference to a lawyer for White House intern Monica Lewinsky who accomplished the feat during the Clinton administration. Mr. Van Hollen appeared on ABC, CNN, CBS, Fox, and NBC Sunday to discuss his meeting with Mr. Abrego. When asked by NBC News’ Kristen Welker if he felt the country was in the midst of a constitutional crisis, he said he did. “Yes, we are,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “They are very much flouting the courts as we speak. As the courts have said, ‘facilitating’ his return means something more than doing nothing, and they are doing nothing. Yes, they are absolutely in violation of the courts’ orders as we speak.”Mr. Van Hollen’s Republican colleague, Senator Kennedy, also appeared on “Meet the Press” on Sunday to push back on the Marylander’s crusade for Mr. Abrego. Mr. Kennedy says that while the deportation was obviously a mistake, it isn’t worth anyone’s time to bring him back because he’ll just be deported again anyway. Mr. Kennedy also says that he doesn’t see a “pattern” of malicious detentions or violations of court orders that worry him. “Look, this was a screw-up, in my opinion. The administration won’t admit it, but this was a screw-up,” Mr. Kennedy said. “It was a screw-up. I don’t see a pattern here. I’ve been listening to my Democratic friends for, I don’t know — since God was a child — that Trump is a threat to democracy. I don’t see a pattern here.”It isn’t just the legal issues at hand that are concerning to Mr. Van Hollen, however. It is also the pervasive deception that he feels is coming from the Trump administration with respect to Mr. Abrego’s case. Speaking to reporters after he returned to Maryland from El Salvador on Saturday, Mr. Van Hollen said that one of the big talking points to come from his meeting with Mr. Abrego was what he called “Margarita-gate.” In a photo posted on X by President Bukele, there were two wine glasses with salted or sugared rims and fruit placed on the table in front of the senator at the deportee. Mr. Van Hollen says it was all a ham-fisted ruse to make himself and Mr. Abrego appear unserious. “As we were talking, one of the government people came over and deposited two other glasses on the table with ice and — I don’t know if it was salt or sugar [rims] around the top — but they looked like margaritas, and if you look at the one that they put in front of Kilmar, it actually had a little less liquid in it than the one in front of me to try to make it look like — I assume — like he drank out of it,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “Neither of us touched the drinks that were in front of us.”“This is a lesson. It is the lengths that President Bukele will [go to] to deceive people about what’s going on, and it also shows the lengths that the Trump administration and the president will go to, because when he was asked [by] a reporter about this, he just went along for the ride,” Mr. Van Hollen said. “The White House and the president had been lying about this case from the beginning — they’ve been trying to change the subject from the beginning.”Several other Democrats are set to travel to El Salvador in the coming week. Congress is out of session until April 28, so lawmakers are deciding to use that vacation time to try to meet with Mr. Abrego as Mr. Van Hollen did. Senator Booker says he is looking to meet with Mr. Abrego in the coming days. Congresswoman Maxin Dexter said in a press release that she would also go to El Salvador this week to “demand” Mr. Abrego’s release. The Maryland senator said on “Fox News Sunday” that he did use taxpayer funds for his El Salvador trip, though House Republican leaders have said they will not authorize Democrats’ use of public money for their visit. Congressman Maxwell Frost and Congressman Robert Garcia had tried to organize a taxpayer-funded congressional delegation to see Mr. Abrego this week, though the chairman of the Oversight Committee, Congressman James Comer, said he would not authorize the two Democrats to use public money for their “absurd” trip. The chairman of the Homeland Security Committee, Congressman Mark Green, similarly denied a request from Democrats on his panel to use committee funds for a congressional delegation to El Salvador. “There is no excuse for Democrats to waste taxpayer dollars visiting and defending a transnational gang member and reported domestic abuser. If Democrats care so much about defending this individual, they can use their own personal credit cards,” Mr. Green said in a statement.

Senator Says Maryland Migrant’s Deportation Is a ‘Constitutional Crisis’ for America

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