A Democratic lawmaker has been heavily criticized after traveling to El Salvador in the hopes of freeing a deported Maryland man accused by the Trump administration of being a criminal.
Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen shared a clip of himself to X before boarding a flight to the country where Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 29, is being held.
The Trump administration deported the father-of-three, citing the move as ‘an administrative error’, but have insisted he is a member of the MS-13 gang.
In his video, Van Hollen said: ‘The goal of this mission is to let the Trump administration, to let the government of El Salvador know that we are going to keep fighting to bring Abrego Garcia home.
‘I hope to actually see Kilmar and see what his condition is. We are going to keep fighting because this is a miscarriage of justice.’
After sharing the video on Wednesday morning, the Department of Homeland Security slammed the lawmaker, citing the case of Rachel Morin in his state who was raped and murdered by an illegal migrant.
In a post to the Homeland Security X page, the government body said: ‘Senator Van Hollen has done more to bring a MS-13 gang member, human trafficker and illegal alien back to Maryland than he has to help keep his American constituents safe or advocate for the victims of these vicious gangs like MS-13.
‘While Senator Van Hollen and the mainstream media peddle a sob story about a brutal MS-13 gang member, Secretary Noem stands with the victims of illegal alien crime, like Maryland mom Rachel Morin.
‘We hear far too much about the gang members and criminals sob stories and not enough about their victims.’
Van Hollen shared a clip of himself to X before boarding a flight to the country where Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, 29, is being held
On March 12, Garcia was pulled over outside of an IKEA in Baltimore with his son
Garcia’s wife Jennifer Vasquez Sura has identified the man seen in this picture being led by forces inside an El Salvador prison as being her husband
The efforts by Van Hollen have also been criticized by Morin’s mother Patty who spoke about the lack of any correspondence from state officials when her daughter was murdered.
Speaking on Fox News with anchor Sean Hannity, she said: ‘I’m very angry, I’m outraged. I’m too sad at the moment to show anger at the same time.
‘He did not call our family, he did not give condolences. There was no action [from] the Democratic party in anyway.
‘From Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, anyone here in Maryland, none of the Senators did anything to help search for the murderer of my daughter.’
Rachel Morin’s illegal immigrant killer Victor Martinez-Hernandez was found guilty of first degree murder, first degree rape and kidnapping on Monday – and is now awaiting sentencing.
Her body had been stuffed in a tunnel drain. An autopsy revealed Morin died from a combination of strangulation and blunt-force trauma.
Rachel Morin, seen here, was raped and murdered by Victor Martinez-Hernandez in 2023
Patty Morin, Rachel’s mother, hit out at Van Hollen – saying he offered her no condolences when her daughter was murdered
Victor Martinez-Hernandez, seen here, was found guilty of first degree murder, first degree rape and kidnapping in the brutal slaying of the 37-year-old
In a follow up video about his ‘mission’ to El Salvador, Van Hollen said: ‘I just landed in San Salvador a little while ago, and I look forward to meeting with the team at the U.S. embassy to discuss the release of Mr. Abrego Garcia.
‘I also hope to meet with Salvadoran officials and with Kilmar himself. He was illegally abducted and needs to come home.’
Border czar Tom Homan also hit out at the trip by Van Hollen, saying he was ‘disgusted’.
He told Fox News: ‘He wasn’t abducted. He’s an MS-13 gang member, classified as a terrorist that was removed from this country, so we got rid of a dangerous person.
Abrego-Garcia, who is a legal resident, arrived at the notorious supermax prison CECOT in El Salvador March 15 on one of three planes from the US.
Abrego Garcia first entered the U.S. in 2011 but was granted permission to stay by a judge in 2019. He later settled down in Maryland and has an American wife and son.
The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia on March 15 after files indicated that he had connections with MS-13, a vicious Salvadorian-American gang.
Van Hollen later shared an update on his X that he had landed in the country, seen here
Abrego Garcia first entered the U.S. in 2011 but was granted permission to stay by a judge in 2019
His wife and lawyer deny his gang affiliation and have sued the administration for improperly removing him from the U.S.
The Trump administration admitted its mistake, and has been ordered by the Supreme Court to ‘facilitate’ his return.
In the Oval Office on Monday, Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele led a united defense of their actions in the case of Abrego Garcia.
Bukele argued he couldn’t return, saying: ”How can I return him to the United States?
‘I smuggle him into the United States or what do I do? Of course, I’m not going to do it.
‘The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.’
Trump supported Bukele’s claim and went further, lobbying the El Salvadorian leader to take more migrants and build more prisons hold them.
‘I just asked the president, you know, it’s this massive complex that he built, a jail complex. I said, ‘Can you build some more of them, please?” Trump said.
He asked Bukele to take ‘as many as we can get out of our country that were allowed in here by incompetent Joe Biden, through open borders, open borders.’
The Justice Department, in its latest filing, argued the courts lack the ability to dictate steps that the White House should take in the matter of the return of Abrego Garcia.
Attorney General Pam Bondi, who joined Trump and Bukele in their Oval Office meeting, said the decision was in El Salvador’s hands.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was also in the Oval Office, backed Bondi, saying the administration was not bound to follow court orders.
