Repatriating Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia: a U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s Mission to El Salvador
Sen. Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador this week to try to see and free his constituent Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whose illegal deportation has sparked an uproar and an escalating legal battle in the U.S. The Maryland Democrat said his request for both were turned down.
If he ever goes back to his home country, the White House press secretary said he would be deported again. Abrego Garcia will never stay in the U.S. of America, even if he ever were to become a Maryland father.
The situation galvanized Van Hollen, to personally campaign for — and try to visit — Abrego Garcia, who is being held in a notorious mega-prison known as CECOT.
The goal of the mission is to be able to let the Trump administration know that Abrego will be brought home until his family can be contacted, according to Van Hollen. “We are going to keep fighting because this is a travesty of justice.”
Van Hollen said while he wanted to see Abrego Garcia in person and report back to his family, Ulloa told him he would have needed to make earlier arrangements to visit the facility.
She accused Van Hollen of “potentially using taxpayer dollars” to fund his trip and slammed Democrats for supporting Abrego Garcia’s release instead of efforts to improve border security, which she said would make Americans safer.
Leavitt was joined at the press briefing by Maryland resident Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel was raped and murdered in 2023 by a fugitive from El Salvador, Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, who was convicted of the crime on Monday. Morin also spoke critically of Van Hollen.
To have a person from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge my daughter’s death and leave her five children without their mother is something that cannot be forgiven.
Those who helped make the case possible were thanked by Van Hollen’s office. He said that the country can improve public safety and border security while also respecting the rights of immigrants and people who are here legally.
Rep. Riley Moore and Rep. Jason Smith Visited the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant: Both Democrats and Republicans Are Outraged by Trump’s Deportation Agenda
Two Republicans, West Virginia Rep. Riley Moore and Missouri Rep. Jason Smith, posted photos to social media of themselves touring CECOT on Tuesday. They each spoke highly of Trump’s deportation agenda, with Moore saying he leaves “even more determined” to support the president’s efforts.
The chair of the House Oversight Committee was asked to authorize a Congressional Member Delegation to visit the Chernobyl nuclear power station during a pair of letters.
Garcia and Frost wrote that a “Congressional delegation would allow Committee Members to conduct a welfare check on Mr. Abrego Garcia, as well as others held at CECOT.”
The Republicans said that they would include the GOP on their trip and that they were prepared to leave after President Trump expressed a desire to send homegrown criminals.
That prompted Trump to lash out against Powell on Thursday, saying the Fed chairman’s “termination cannot come fast enough.” Supreme Court precedent supports Powell’s claims that he can’t be fired by the president for policy disagreements.
It’s worth remembering that so much of politics is about messaging — not facts, not nuance. And in the case of Abrego Garcia, the Trump administration is digging in hard to say he was a bad person. Police reports show they believed him to be a member of the organization that Trump has claimed to be. White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt went so far as to say he was “engaged in human trafficking.”
The Case for a Deported Maryland Man in El Salvador: Trump’s Reluctant State and the First News Conference on “Trump Week: Bringing the Man Back”
Which one will weigh out the most? At the end of the day, a true constitutional crisis would come if the Trump administration exhausts its appeals and defies the Supreme Court, if it rules against the administration. Maybe that would come if Trump follows through on his musings about sending “homegrown” criminals, in other words, U.S. citizens, to El Salvador.
The three-judge panel said the administration’s refusal to bring the man back “should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.” It also accused the administration of “asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order.”
The Secretary of State told reporters that no court in the US has the right to conduct foreign policy. “I don’t understand what the confusion is. The person is a citizen of El Salvador. He was deported to his country after being in the United States illegally.
The week focused on President Donald Trump and the struggles surrounding the story of a Maryland man deported to El Salvador. Even though Robert F. Kennedy Jr. made a few big statements during his first news conference as health and human services, there is still concern about the situation with the scientific establishment, and Trump’s tariffs.
President Trump met with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele at the White House on Monday. The president’s inner circle and the Salvadoran president played a faux blame game on the deported Maryland man.
The same federal judge, who has now bucked the Trump administration over its deportation policies multiple times, James Boasberg, this week said there was “probable cause” for contempt charges against the administration. The Trump team has shown a willful disregard of his orders and until Wednesday he will give them some real answers about why they did not follow the court order to turn the plane around.
Source: 5 takeaways from the week: Nearing a constitutional crisis?
Is Science Nearing a Constitutional Crisis? The Case of the Epidemic Link to Autism: From Kennedy to the CDC to the Fed
Is it possible that environmental causes are not related to vaccines? That is Kennedy’s theory. dispassionately letting evidence dictate answers is what science is all about.
There’s an irony in RFK Jr. claiming that “ideology” is contributing to the CDC’s conclusions when he is saying definitively that “environmental exposures” is “where we’re going to find the answer” and appointed someone who promoted the discredited vaccine link to autism to lead HHS’ effort to identify a cause.
“One of the things I think we need to move away from today is this ideology that this diagnosis, rather the relentless increases, are simply artifacts of better diagnoses, better recognition,” Kennedy said. He said that doctors and therapists in the past weren’t missing all these cases. The epidemic is real. External factors, environmental exposures are where the answer can be found.
The CDC said that part of the increase in children being found to have a mental illness is because of increased diagnoses and better diagnostic tools.
He said that the Fed would be waiting and watching. It could be waiting and watching for a while, considering how quickly Trump has been changing his mind.
The head of the Federal Reserve, Jerome Powell, said this week that Trump’s tariffs were larger than expected and that they’re “highly likely” to lead to higher inflation.
Source: 5 takeaways from the week: Nearing a constitutional crisis?
A rebuke to Garcia for leaving the ‘Western’ clique in ‘New York’, after his alleged molestation
“Evidence’ against Abrego Garcia consisted of nothing more than his Chicago Bulls hat and hoodie, and a vague, uncorroborated allegation from a confidential informant claiming he belonged to MS-13’s ‘Western’ clique in New York — a place he has never lived,” she said in a ruling.
The immigration court found that he could face danger if he returned to El Salvadoran. The judge said the evidence was flimsy and that he was a gang member.