{"id":8352,"date":"2025-04-18T16:46:48","date_gmt":"2025-04-18T16:46:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/i-love-chess-trump-allies-democrats-clash-over-van-hollens-el-salvador-visit\/"},"modified":"2025-04-18T16:46:48","modified_gmt":"2025-04-18T16:46:48","slug":"i-love-chess-trump-allies-democrats-clash-over-van-hollens-el-salvador-visit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/i-love-chess-trump-allies-democrats-clash-over-van-hollens-el-salvador-visit\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018I love chess\u2019: Trump allies, Democrats clash over Van Hollen\u2019s El Salvador visit"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

Democrats are celebrating Sen. Chris Van Hollen\u2019s meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a victory in their fight to secure the wrongfully deported man’s release.<\/p>\n

But President Donald Trump is claiming the meeting as a win, too.<\/p>\n

The two parties are locked into warring narratives on Abrego Garcia\u2019s case, which has taken center stage amid an escalating battle between Trump and the courts over the administration\u2019s mass deportation policy.<\/p>\n

Van Hollen on Thursday secured a face-to-face meeting with Abrego Garcia<\/a>, who was illegally deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador and held in the country\u2019s CECOT mega-prison for the past month. The Maryland senator has led the charge for Democrats pushing for accountability from the administration. <\/p>\n

After the Salvadoran government initially blocked his attempt<\/a> to visit the notorious prison, the senator succeeded in his mission to meet Abrego Garcia \u2014 a Salvadoran native who lived in Maryland until his deportation \u2014 on Thursday, writing in a post to X<\/a>: \u201cI said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance.\u201d<\/p>\n

Democrats immediately branded the meeting a success, lauding Van Hollen for his leadership and perseverance in pushing to see Abrego Garcia.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis is what leadership looks like. I\u2019m proud of my partner and our senior Senator,\u201d Van Hollen\u2019s fellow Maryland Sen. Angela Alsobrooks wrote on X<\/a>. \u201cWe won\u2019t stop until we bring Kilmar home.\u201d<\/p>\n

Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) on Friday also thanked Van Hollen for his trip, writing on X: \u201cMr. Abrego Garcia was wrongfully imprisoned. As the Supreme Court indicated, there was no basis for his warrantless arrest. The Trump admin must obey the law. He must be returned home.\u201d<\/p>\n

But President Donald Trump and top administration officials say Van Hollen\u2019s visit played right into their hands.<\/p>\n

Trump bashed Van Hollen on Truth Social Friday morning<\/a>, writing: \u201cSenator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland looked like a fool yesterday standing in El Salvador begging for attention from the Fake News Media, or anyone. GRANDSTANDER!!!\u201d<\/p>\n

The official White House account on X posted side-by-side photographs of Van Hollen\u2019s meeting with Abrego Garcia and Trump\u2019s Oval Office conversation with the mother of Rachel Morin, a Maryland woman whose killer \u2014 who was convicted this week \u2014 was an undocumented immigrant, drawing a comparison between the two visits.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe are not the same,\u201d read the post, which is now pinned atop the White House\u2019s profile.
White House deputy press secretary Kush Desai took aim at Van Hollen in a post Thursday<\/a> night, emphasizing the administration\u2019s line on the contrast between the two parties\u2019 priorities, writing: \u201cChris Van Hollen has firmly established Democrats as the party whose top priority is the welfare of an illegal alien MS-13 terrorist. It is truly disgusting. President Trump will continue to stand on the side of law-abiding Americans.\u201d<\/p>\n

The White House has for days sought to frame Democrats\u2019 advocacy for Abrego Garcia as the rival party working on behalf of someone who the administration has branded an MS-13 gang member and terrorist, even as a federal judge has said the evidence presented by the administration is weak. <\/p>\n

By contrast, the administration has projected itself as a champion for justice<\/a> for the Morin family as they reel from the loss of their daughter.<\/p>\n

Trump has resisted efforts to bring back Abrego Garcia despite repeated orders from the courts to do so. U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis ordered the administration to \u201cfacilitate\u201d his return to the States after government lawyers admitted<\/a> Abrego Garcia\u2019s deportation was an \u201cadministrative error,\u201d and has previously cast the evidence of gang affiliation presented by the government \u2014 a tip from an informant and the fact he has worn Chicago Bulls attire \u2014 as very flimsy<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The Supreme Court subsequently upheld Xinis\u2019 order to facilitate his return. A federal appellate court opinion \u2014 authored by one of the nation\u2019s most prominent conservative appellate judges \u2014 issued hours before Van Hollen\u2019s meeting with Abrego Garica was made public also excoriated the Trump administration\u2019s handling of the case<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe 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,\u201d 4th Circuit Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson, a Reagan appointee, wrote.<\/p>\n

He continued: \u201cThis should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.\u201d<\/p>\n

The unanimous three-judge panel refused to lift Xinis\u2019 order calling for the U.S. to facilitate Abrego Garcia\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

The White House Friday posted an edited headline from The New York Times<\/a>, calling Abrego Garcia an \u201cMS-13 illegal alien\u201d who is \u201cnever coming back.\u201d<\/p>\n

The administration has also found a willing partner<\/a> in its intensifying messaging campaign on Abrego Garcia\u2019s case: Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.<\/p>\n

Bukele has appeared to join forces with the Trump administration, claiming that his hands are tied, too. During a visit to the White House Monday, the Salvadoran president said he would not release Abrego Garcia \u2014 asking, \u201cHow can I return him to the United States? Am I going to smuggle him?\u201d \u2014 granting Trump the leeway to claim that he was unable to \u201cfacilitate\u201d Abrego Garcia\u2019s return.<\/p>\n

Bukele also broke the news of Van Hollen\u2019s meeting with Abrego Garcia Thursday night with a mocking tone.<\/p>\n

\u201cKilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the \u2018death camps\u2019 & \u2018torture\u2019, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!,\u201d Bukele said, appearing to take<\/a> a jab at Democrats who had warned of the severity of the conditions in CECOT.<\/p>\n

The El Salvadoran president also indicated that the fight over Abrego Garcia is far from over, writing that the Maryland man \u201cgets the honor of staying in El Salvador\u2019s custody.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cI love chess,\u201d Bukele wrote in a separate post<\/a> as reactions to Van Hollen\u2019s visit poured in. The Trump War Room, an account run by the president\u2019s political operation, reposted the message.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Democrats are celebrating Sen. Chris Van Hollen\u2019s meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia as a victory in their fight to secure the wrongfully deported man’s release. But President Donald Trump is claiming the meeting as a win, too. The two parties are locked into warring narratives on Abrego Garcia\u2019s case, which has taken center stage amid […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-congress"],"amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8352","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8352"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8352\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/bluelightnews.com\/category\/politics\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}