Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is on his way to El Salvador on Wednesday seeking to secure the release of a man wrongly deported by the Trump administration, as officials ramp up their defense of the administration’s actions in an escalating battle over President Donald Trump’s mass deportation policy.
The Trump administration has made the fight around Kilmar Abrego Garcia the centerpiece of its broader deportation efforts, resisting efforts to bring the Salvadoran native back to the United States, despite a Supreme Court ruling that the administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return after his illegal deportation.
Trump and senior members of his administration have said they have no legal obligation to arrange for anything more than admitting Abrego Garcia back into the country if El Salvador releases him from a high-security prison. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, with whom Trump has developed a budding friendship, said during a visit to the Oval Office this week that he would not release Abrego Garcia.
Trump’s refusal to make any attempt to bring Abrego Garcia back — and an increasingly high-stakes standoff with the lower court that originally ordered Abrego Garcia returned — has sparked growing concern among Democrats, who have decried the administration’s effort as lawless.
Van Hollen, one of Abrego Garcia’s Maryland senators, has been extremely vocal in advocating for his release, promising Monday to travel to El Salvador to “check on” his condition and “discuss his release” after Bukele rebuffed attempts to set up a meeting during his visit to Washington.
The Maryland senator followed through on his commitment, traveling to the Central American country Wednesday morning.
“The goal of this mission is to let the Trump administration, let the government of El Salvador know that we are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home until he returns to his family,” Van Hollen said in a video from the airport on his way to San Salvador, adding that he hopes to “meet with representatives of the government” and “see Kilmar.”
Trump border czar Tom Homan slammed the Democratic senator for his visit, calling the trip “disgusting” on Fox News on Wednesday morning and echoing a line from the administration that the senator is more concerned with an “MS-13 terrorist” than Rachel Morin, a Maryland woman whose killer — who was convicted this week — was an undocumented immigrant.
“He wasn’t abducted. He is an MS-13 gang member, classified as a terrorist, that was removed from this country. So we got rid of a dangerous person — an El Salvadoran national was returned to the country of El Salvador, to his home,” Homan said, going on to call Abrego Garcia a “public safety threat.”
Administration officials have repeatedly called Abrego Garcia a “terrorist” and “MS-13 gang member.” The Trump administration has contended that he is a member of the gang by citing an immigration court proceeding from 2019. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who initially ordered Abrego Garcia’s return, has called the evidence of any gang affiliation extraordinarily flimsy: It amounted to a tip from a confidential informant and the fact that Abrego Garcia wore Chicago Bulls attire.
Government lawyers openly admitted that Abrego Garcia had been deported in violation of federal law earlier this month, as an immigration judge in 2019 had determined he faced legitimate fear of persecution in El Salvador and could not be deported back to his country of origin. He was among the hundreds of men deported by the administration last month to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT mega-prison.
Xinis said Tuesday that her court would launch an “intense” two-week inquiry into the Trump administration’s attempts — or lack thereof — to bring him back to the United States. She said the Supreme Court’s order was “very clear” that the government was obligated to work to secure his release.
“I’m cleaving as closely as one can cleave to the Supreme Court,” the judge said in court. “There is, in my view, nothing to appeal. Now, we get to the facts.”
As Van Hollen prepared to make his way to El Salvador, Vice President JD Vance defended the administration’s stance on X, blaming President Joe Biden’s immigration policies for overwhelming the country’s immigration system and dismissing concerns that due process was not applied to people who had immigrated illegally: “What process is due is a function of our resources, the public interest, the status of the accused, the proposed punishment, and so many other factors,” Vance wrote.
“Biden overwhelmed the system with illegal migration. Is your proposed solution to give a jury trial to all 20 million illegal aliens (more if you count those already here)?” Vance wrote in a heated exchange with another user on X.
In another post, Vance wrote that granting all people who had immigrated illegally the right of “burden of ‘proof’ and a ‘trial’” is “preposterous,” asking another user “how does the standard you’re proposing lead to anything other than a nullification of the election result?”
As administration officials double down on their deportation strategy, more Democrats are gearing up for trips of their own to El Salvador.
Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey is already organizing travel plans, POLITICO previously reported, and several House Democrats are seeking authorization from House GOP leadership for an official congressional trip, known as a CODEL, to the Central American country.
Meanwhile, some House Republicans are making trips of their own to show support for Trump’s plans to deport people to El Salvador’s notorious prisons.
Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) posted a series of photos of himself posing in front of crowds of prisoners in the country’s CECOT mega-prison Wednesday, writing that his “tour” of the maximum security facility left him “even more determined to support President Trump’s efforts to secure our homeland.”