President Donald Trump accused Sen. Chris Van Hollen of political grandstanding after the Maryland Democrat managed to fulfill this week with an immigrant who had made a life in his state earlier than being wrongfully deported to El Salvador final month.
The case sparked contemporary fears that the Trump administration isn’t notably keen on respecting the rule of regulation in the USA.
The president wrote on his social media platform that the senator “looked like a fool yesterday standing in El Salvador begging for attention from the Fake News Media, or anyone.”
He threw in an insult: “GRANDSTANDER!!!”
Trump additionally lashed out on the immigrant, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, saying he was “not a very innocent guy” on Friday whereas talking to reporters.
Abrego Garcia was unintentionally swept up because the Trump administration flew the primary teams of immigrants to a Salvadoran megaprison referred to as CECOT, which has a popularity for human rights abuses.
He had not been seen or heard from till Van Hollen shared a photograph of himself sitting and talking with Abrego Garcia on Thursday. The {photograph} prompted a reply from El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who mocked issues about Abrego Garcia’s well-being.
Abrego Garcia appeared dressed neatly in a short-sleeved plaid button-down, denims and a hat that seemingly masked the excitement minimize all prisoners are given upon entry to CECOT. Within the jail, the lads are given a plain uniform and never allowed open air. Cells within the 40,000-capacity facility can maintain as much as 70 individuals.
The White Home additionally mocked Van Hollen’s journey on X, previously Twitter, marking up a New York Instances headline to label Abrego Garcia an “MS-13 illegal alien” who’s “never coming back.”
Van Hollen was initially rebuffed by Salvadoran officers when he arrived within the nation Wednesday asking to fulfill with Abrego Garcia, a father from El Salvador who’s married to a U.S. citizen and was dwelling in Maryland.
The senator mentioned he would share extra details about the assembly upon his return to the U.S. on Friday.
Abrego Garcia had been granted a particular protecting order by a federal decide in 2019 stopping his deportation to El Salvador out of concern of persecution. Whereas immigration officers supplied skinny proof that he was a member of MS-13, he argued that he can be focused by violent gangs if he returned to his nation of origin.
The precise-leaning U.S. Supreme Court docket agreed that the Trump administration needed to “facilitate” the immigrant’s return, though the case has been despatched again to a decrease courtroom for additional proceedings.
At a press convention given earlier than he was allowed to see Abrego Garcia, Van Hollen mentioned he got here to El Salvador “to vouch for the judicial system of the United States, which guarantees individuals the right to due process.”
“We need to make sure that the court system works and due process works, because if you take it away for any individual, it’s a very short road to taking it away for everyone in America,” Van Hollen mentioned.
“I should point out that this inability to communicate with his lawyers is a violation of international law. El Salvador is a party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights,” he added, referencing the United Nations treaty.
Abrego Garcia’s spouse, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, informed “Good Morning America” on Friday that it has been “overwhelming” to know her husband is alive.
“The most important thing for me, my children, his mom, his brother, his sibling, was to see him alive, and we saw him alive,” she mentioned on air.
Talking to reporters from the White Home, Trump on Friday learn excerpts from a press release Vasquez Sura gave to police as she sought a protecting order from her husband in 2021 for home violence. Vasquez Sura has been vocal in her help for Abrego Garcia, and mentioned in a press release to ABC Information that her household had labored out the battle privately.
