Sen. Chris Van Hollen argues Trump administration’s actions in Abrego Garcia case ‘threaten everybody’s rights’

Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen, fresh off his visit to El Salvador where he met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, slammed the Trump administration for its handling of the mistaken deportation case, telling CNN that it poses a threat to “the constitutional rights of everybody in America.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who recently met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, slammed the Trump administration for its handling of the Maryland man’s mistaken deportation, telling CNN it poses a threat to “the constitutional rights of everybody in America.” Van Hollen, in an interview airing Sunday on CNN, argued Abrego Garcia’s due process rights are being ignored as he remains in El Salvador after being mistakenly deported. “If we deny the constitutional rights of this one man, it threatens the constitutional rights of everybody in America,” the Maryland Democrat told CNN’s Dana Bash on “State of the Union.” Van Hollen traveled last week to El Salvador, where he was first denied a meeting with Abrego Garcia. The senator was ultimately allowed to meet Thursday evening with the Maryland father, who described being “traumatized” at El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, according to Van Hollen. In a news conference Friday upon his return to the US, Van Hollen said that Abrego Garcia was moved from the maximum-security prison into another facility, where “conditions are better.” Though the White House has admitted that Abrego Garcia — an undocumented immigrant from El Salvador whom a judge ordered in 2019 could not be removed to his home country over fear of persecution — was mistakenly deported last month, President Donald Trump’s administration and the El Salvadoran government have said he will not be returned to the US.