Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Sunday repeatedly sidestepped questions about whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia was an MS-13 gangbanger as the Trump administration has alleged.
Van Hollen (D-Md.), who met with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador on Thursday notably refused to deny that Abrego Garcia was gang member and confessed he did not ask him about the alleged ties when they spoke — despite CNN’s Dana Bash asking him point-blank if he could say “with absolute certainty” that the deported illegal migrant wasn’t a member of the vicious gang.
Hollen then shifted the discussion from MS-13 by ironically accusing President Trump of repeatedly trying to change the subject on due process concerns.
“What Donald Trump is trying to do here is change the subject,” Van Hollen told CNN’s “State of the Union” Sunday when Bash asked about Abrego Garcia’s alleged MS-13 ties.
“They are trying to litigate on social media what they should be doing in the courts.”
The Maryland Democrat then read off a quote from US District Judge Paula Xinis, who said there was “no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or any terrorist activity has been presented to the court.”
“That’s where to litigate this,” Van Hollen stressed. “I’m not going to get into the details because the whole purpose of our court system is for them to adjudicate these things, not for them to go off on social media.”
Abrego Garcia, 29, who illegally entered the US in 2011, was deported to his home country of El Salvador last month despite a 2019 court order blocking his deportation there due to concerns that he could face gang violence.
That deportation came under unique circumstances via Trump’s use of wartime powers in the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
During his brief meeting with Abrego Garcia, Van Hollen declined to ask about his alleged MS-13 ties because “I know what his answer is” and recounted how the 29-year-old told him he was “sad and traumatized that he was being in prison because he has committed no crimes.”
The Trump administration alleges that Abrego Garcia was discovered having “rolls of cash and drugs” when he was detained and that he had been “arrested with two other members of MS-13.”
They’ve also claimed in court documents that Abrego Garcia was “confirmed to be a ranking member of the MS-13 gang by a proven and reliable source.”
Publicly, they’ve also pointed to a lower court ruling from 2019 in which he was denied bond because “the evidence shows that he is a verified member of MS-13” and to a police report from 2019 that suggested he was an active MS-13 member at the time of his initial detention.
Van Hollen has previously accused the Trump administration of lying about Abrego Garcia’s alleged ties to MS-13.
“I want to emphasize that President Trump and our Attorney General Pam Bondi and the vice president of the United States are lying when they say that Abrego Garcia has been charged with a crime or is part of MS-13,” he emphatically told reporters in El Salvador last week.
“That is a lie.”
Abrego Garcia’s legal team and family have been adamant that he is not a member of MS-13.
Still, despite his staunch advocacy on behalf of Abrego Garcia, who lived in Maryland before his deportation, Van Hollen indicated that he’s not necessarily opposed to him being deported.
“I’m okay with whatever the rule of law dictates,” Van Hollen contended to CNN on Sunday. “We have a lawless president who is ignoring the order of the Supreme Court of the United States to facilitate his return. That’s what’s going on right now. That is a risk to all of us.”
Earlier this month, the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to take steps “to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent” there.
But the high court also ruled that the lower courts must show “deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.” The Trump administration claims it is complying with the Supreme Court and has argued that it was not ordered to compel El Salvador to send Abrego Garcia back to the US.
“I don’t think it’s ever wrong to fight for the constitutional rights of one person, because if we give up on one person’s rights, we threaten everybody’s rights,” Van Hollen added.
In a separate interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” Van Hollen said he believes that the US is in a constitutional crisis at the moment because the Trump administration is “very much flouting the courts as we speak.”
He also addressed the Trump administration’s criticism that he has focused more energy on defending Abrego Garcia than on getting justice for Rachel Morin, a Marylander who was savagely raped an beaten and raped by an illegal immigrant in 2023.
Last week, the White House spotlighted her mother, Patty, who delivered an emotional rebuke of the senator’s efforts to defend Abrego Garcia.
“My heart goes out to the Morin family. They suffered, experienced an unspeakable tragedy in the murder of their daughter,” Van Hollen said.
“I’m very glad that the killer of Rachel has been convicted in a court of law. That is how we hold guilty people accountable. The courts of law are also where people get to have their due process so we don’t unfairly punish people who don’t have criminal records,” he continued.
“I’m not sure why Abrego Garcia’s rights should be denied based on an awful murder that he had absolutely nothing to do with.”
Following the senator’s visit to El Salvador, Van Hollen revealed that he had been informed that Abrego Garcia was transferred out of the notoriously brutal Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) to another facility in Santa Ana.
That new facility has “better” conditions, but Abrego Garcia was still kept in isolation, according to Van Hollen.
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