Republican Rep. Mike Collins has trolled Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen after his trip to lobby for the deported ‘Maryland man’ with a plaque that says he represents El Salvador.
Collins posted on X a photo of the plaque outside of Van Hollen’s office that reads ‘El Salvador’ to further criticize the senator’s trip to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia after he was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison.
‘Hey @ChrisVanHollen, I went ahead and changed your office plaque for you,’ Collins posted along with the picture.
Collins has been one of many critics of the senator’s trip to see Garcia and advocate for his release.
Garcia, who lives in Maryland with his wife and children after arriving in the United States in 2011, was deported to a Salvadoran high-security prison in March accused of being an MS-13 gang member.
Van Hollen flew out to El Salvador on Wednesday to visit Garcia urging for the deported migrant’s release.
Collins also posted upon Van Hollen’s return a photo of him and Garcia sitting at a dining table and said: ‘This is a sitting US Senator consoling an MS-13 gang member. Traitorous.’
When Van Hollen first announced he would be taking the trip to El Salvador in pursuit of justice for Garcia, Collins responded and said: ‘If you’re going to advocate harder for illegal gang members than you do American citizens, don’t come back.’
Republican Rep. Mike Collins openly mocked Maryland Democrat Chris Van Hollen after his trip to lobby for the deported ‘ Maryland man’ with a plaque that says he represents El Salvador
Van Hollen flew out to El Salvador on Wednesday to visit Garcia urging for the deported migrant’s release
Collins posted on X with a photo of a plaque outside of his office to further criticize travelling to El Salvador to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia after he was mistakenly deported to a notorious El Salvador prison
The Maryland Senator’s visit didn’t come without fallout from both Democrats and Republicans, as he received backlash from sipping on ‘fake margaritas’ with the deported man.
In what Van Hollen said was a ‘set-up’ by El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, he and Garcia were pictured sipping what appeared to be margaritas during their meeting.
The photo was posted by Bukele after his government finally allowed Van Hollen to meet with Garcia.
‘Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ & ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!’ Bukele captioned the images posted to X on Thursday.
But Van Hollen sought to set the record straight after returning to the U.S. on Friday, telling a throng of reporters at a Virginia airport after returning from his trip that the drinks were set out by the country’s president.
‘So here’s what happened, when I first sat down with Kilmar, we just had glasses of water, maybe some coffee, and as we were talking one of the government people came over and deposited two other glasses on the table with ice and I don’t know if it was salt or sugar around the top, but they look like margaritas,’ Van Hollen said.
‘And if you look at the one, they put in front of Kilmar, it actually had a little less liquid than the one in me in front of me to try to make it look, I assumed, like he drank out of it.’
‘Let me just be very clear, neither of us touched the drinks that were in front of us, and if you want to play a little Sherlock Holmes, I’ll tell you how you can know that,’ the senator explained.
The Maryland Senator’s visit didn’t come without fallout from both Democrats and Republicans, as he received backlash from sipping ‘fake margaritas’ with the deported man
Garcia, who lives in Maryland with his wife and children after arriving in the United States in 2011, was deported to a Salvadoran high-security prison in March accused of being an MS-13 gang member
He claimed that because of the salt- or sugar-covered rims, he could prove that neither he nor Kilmar imbibed during the welfare check Van Hollen had been demanding for days.
The lawmaker also addressed the more serious issue of being set up by Bukele.
‘Nobody drank any margaritas or sugar water or whatever it is. But this is a lesson. It’s the lengths that President Bukele will do to deceive people about what’s going on, and it’s also shows the lengths that the Trump administration and the President will go to,’ the Democrat charged.
Garcia was deported to a Salvadoran high-security prison in March accused of being an MS-13 gang member.
While the White House initially admitted that he was deported by mistake leading, the Trump administration is adamant on Garcia’s status as a gang member and has stood firm on his deportation.
A 2019 immigration judge had placed a deportation protection ruling on Garcia, after it was found he may be subject to persecution should he return to El Salvador.
The Supreme Court recently told the administration that they needed to ‘facilitate’ Garcia’s return.
Late Thursday, a three-judge panel from the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously refused to suspend a judge’s decision to order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they complied with the court’s instruction to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.
The Trump administration´s claims that it can’t do anything to free Garcia from an El Salvador prison or return him to the US ‘should be shocking to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear,’ the court said Thursday in a blistering order that ratchets up the escalating conflict between the government’s executive and judicial branches.
Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and his lawyer deny his gang affiliation and have sued the administration for improperly removing him from the U.S
While the White House initially admitted that he was deported by mistake leading, the Trump administration is adamant on Garcia’s status as a gang member and stand firm on his deportation
Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who was nominated by Republican President Ronald Reagan, said: ‘It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all.’
‘The government is 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. Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done,’ the filing furthered.
He added that he and his two colleagues ‘cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos.’
Trump officials insist Garcia is not an innocent American and claim he’s an MS-13 gangster who deserves to be sent back to El Salvador.
Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, and his lawyer deny his gang affiliation and have sued the administration for improperly removing him from the U.S.
