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Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Sunday that his recent trip to El Salvador was not about defending Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident deported despite a court order, but about defending the Constitution.

“I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process,” Van Hollen told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday. “And the Trump administration has admitted in court that he was wrongfully detained and wrongfully deported. My mission and my purpose is to make sure that we uphold the rule of law, because if we take it away from him, we do jeopardize it for everybody else.”

Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador last week to seek answers about the detention and safety of Abrego Garcia, who was deported in March to the country’s notorious CECOT prison, despite a 2019 court order prohibiting his removal due to safety fears. The Trump administration alleged he was affiliated with the MS-13 gang — an accusation his attorneys and his family firmly deny.

Abrego Garcia, who fled from gang threats in El Salvador in 2011, is married to a U.S. citizen and is the father of a 5-year-old son with autism. He was apprehended by ICE in Maryland on March 12, transferred to a Texas detention center, and then deported — something the administration later called an “administrative error.” He remains under a final order of removal.

“I think, at some point, the president of El Salvador realized it was looking really bad to have this person who had been absconded from the streets of Maryland in one of their prisons and not able to communicate,” Van Hollen said. “So I ended up getting a call saying, ‘We will bring him to your hotel,’ and that’s how we met.”Initially denied access to CECOT, Van Hollen had been preparing to leave the country when he was notified that Abrego Garcia would be brought to him.

Karl asked the senator what Abrego Garcia shared during their meeting.

“He told me about the trauma he had been experiencing, both in terms of the abduction and the fact that he was originally sent to CECOT, which is this notorious prison,” Van Hollen said. “He specifically mentioned his 5-year-old boy who has autism, because that boy had been in the car with him when U.S. agents had stopped them and handcuffed him and then taken him away.”

Van Hollen also criticized the role of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, saying his government was “complicit in this illegal scheme with the Trump administration,” and called it a violation of international law to prevent any communication with a prisoner.

“The family hadn’t heard from him. Nobody had any contact for weeks,” Van Hollen said. “This is a guy who’s just abducted off the streets of Maryland, put in a couple airplanes, didn’t know he was going to El Salvador, and ends up in the most notorious prison.”

The senator also addressed questions about optics after Salvadoran authorities reportedly tried to stage the meeting at a hotel pool.

“They actually wanted to have the meeting by the hotel pool,” Van Hollen said. “They wanted to put me right overlooking the pool. You’re absolutely right that the Salvadoran authorities tried to deceive people. They tried to make it look like he was in paradise.”

Karl asked if Van Hollen had walked into a trap.

“It wasn’t a trap. My goal was to meet with him and make sure I could tell his wife and family he was OK. That was my goal, and I achieved that goal,” the senator said.

Van Hollen also weighed in on broader implications for presidential power.

“This is a person who the United States courts have determined was illegally taken from the United States,” he said. “And my whole purpose here is to make sure that we observe the rule of law, the Constitution, due process, rights….It just goes to show the lengths that Bukele and Trump will go to try to deceive people about what this case is all about, and simply complying with the Supreme Court order to facilitate his return and make sure he gets due process.”

Of the Trump administration, Van Hollen said: “Here’s where they should put their facts: They should put it before the court. They should put up or shut up in court, because the district court judge in this case said, and I quote, ‘They put no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or to any other terrorist activity.’”

On criticism from Republicans that Democrats are defending a gang member, Van Hollen pushed back forcefully.

“The idea that you can’t defend people’s rights under the Constitution and fight MS-13 and gang violence is a very dangerous idea. That’s the idea the president wants to put out. That’s why they’re spreading all these lies.” Van Hollen said. “I would say that anyone that’s not prepared to defend the constitutional rights of one man when they threaten the constitutional rights of all doesn’t deserve to lead.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Sunday that his recent trip to El Salvador was not about defending Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident deported despite a court order, but about defending the Constitution.

“I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process,” Van Hollen told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday. “And the Trump administration has admitted in court that he was wrongfully detained and wrongfully deported. My mission and my purpose is to make sure that we uphold the rule of law, because if we take it away from him, we do jeopardize it for everybody else.”

Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador last week to seek answers about the detention and safety of Abrego Garcia, who was deported in March to the country’s notorious CECOT prison, despite a 2019 court order prohibiting his removal due to safety fears. The Trump administration alleged he was affiliated with the MS-13 gang — an accusation his attorneys and his family firmly deny.

Abrego Garcia, who fled from gang threats in El Salvador in 2011, is married to a U.S. citizen and is the father of a 5-year-old son with autism. He was apprehended by ICE in Maryland on March 12, transferred to a Texas detention center, and then deported — something the administration later called an “administrative error.” He remains under a final order of removal.

“I think, at some point, the president of El Salvador realized it was looking really bad to have this person who had been absconded from the streets of Maryland in one of their prisons and not able to communicate,” Van Hollen said. “So I ended up getting a call saying, ‘We will bring him to your hotel,’ and that’s how we met.”Initially denied access to CECOT, Van Hollen had been preparing to leave the country when he was notified that Abrego Garcia would be brought to him.

Karl asked the senator what Abrego Garcia shared during their meeting.

“He told me about the trauma he had been experiencing, both in terms of the abduction and the fact that he was originally sent to CECOT, which is this notorious prison,” Van Hollen said. “He specifically mentioned his 5-year-old boy who has autism, because that boy had been in the car with him when U.S. agents had stopped them and handcuffed him and then taken him away.”

Van Hollen also criticized the role of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, saying his government was “complicit in this illegal scheme with the Trump administration,” and called it a violation of international law to prevent any communication with a prisoner.

“The family hadn’t heard from him. Nobody had any contact for weeks,” Van Hollen said. “This is a guy who’s just abducted off the streets of Maryland, put in a couple airplanes, didn’t know he was going to El Salvador, and ends up in the most notorious prison.”

The senator also addressed questions about optics after Salvadoran authorities reportedly tried to stage the meeting at a hotel pool.

“They actually wanted to have the meeting by the hotel pool,” Van Hollen said. “They wanted to put me right overlooking the pool. You’re absolutely right that the Salvadoran authorities tried to deceive people. They tried to make it look like he was in paradise.”

Karl asked if Van Hollen had walked into a trap.

“It wasn’t a trap. My goal was to meet with him and make sure I could tell his wife and family he was OK. That was my goal, and I achieved that goal,” the senator said.

Van Hollen also weighed in on broader implications for presidential power.

“This is a person who the United States courts have determined was illegally taken from the United States,” he said. “And my whole purpose here is to make sure that we observe the rule of law, the Constitution, due process, rights….It just goes to show the lengths that Bukele and Trump will go to try to deceive people about what this case is all about, and simply complying with the Supreme Court order to facilitate his return and make sure he gets due process.”

Of the Trump administration, Van Hollen said: “Here’s where they should put their facts: They should put it before the court. They should put up or shut up in court, because the district court judge in this case said, and I quote, ‘They put no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or to any other terrorist activity.’”

On criticism from Republicans that Democrats are defending a gang member, Van Hollen pushed back forcefully.

“The idea that you can’t defend people’s rights under the Constitution and fight MS-13 and gang violence is a very dangerous idea. That’s the idea the president wants to put out. That’s why they’re spreading all these lies.” Van Hollen said. “I would say that anyone that’s not prepared to defend the constitutional rights of one man when they threaten the constitutional rights of all doesn’t deserve to lead.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said Sunday that his recent trip to El Salvador was not about defending Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident deported despite a court order, but about defending the Constitution.

“I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process,” Van Hollen told ABC News’ “This Week” co-anchor Jonathan Karl on Sunday. “And the Trump administration has admitted in court that he was wrongfully detained and wrongfully deported. My mission and my purpose is to make sure that we uphold the rule of law, because if we take it away from him, we do jeopardize it for everybody else.”

Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador last week to seek answers about the detention and safety of Abrego Garcia, who was deported in March to the country’s notorious CECOT prison, despite a 2019 court order prohibiting his removal due to safety fears. The Trump administration alleged he was affiliated with the MS-13 gang — an accusation his attorneys and his family firmly deny.

Abrego Garcia, who fled from gang threats in El Salvador in 2011, is married to a U.S. citizen and is the father of a 5-year-old son with autism. He was apprehended by ICE in Maryland on March 12, transferred to a Texas detention center, and then deported — something the administration later called an “administrative error.” He remains under a final order of removal.

“I think, at some point, the president of El Salvador realized it was looking really bad to have this person who had been absconded from the streets of Maryland in one of their prisons and not able to communicate,” Van Hollen said. “So I ended up getting a call saying, ‘We will bring him to your hotel,’ and that’s how we met.”Initially denied access to CECOT, Van Hollen had been preparing to leave the country when he was notified that Abrego Garcia would be brought to him.

Karl asked the senator what Abrego Garcia shared during their meeting.

“He told me about the trauma he had been experiencing, both in terms of the abduction and the fact that he was originally sent to CECOT, which is this notorious prison,” Van Hollen said. “He specifically mentioned his 5-year-old boy who has autism, because that boy had been in the car with him when U.S. agents had stopped them and handcuffed him and then taken him away.”

Van Hollen also criticized the role of El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, saying his government was “complicit in this illegal scheme with the Trump administration,” and called it a violation of international law to prevent any communication with a prisoner.

“The family hadn’t heard from him. Nobody had any contact for weeks,” Van Hollen said. “This is a guy who’s just abducted off the streets of Maryland, put in a couple airplanes, didn’t know he was going to El Salvador, and ends up in the most notorious prison.”

The senator also addressed questions about optics after Salvadoran authorities reportedly tried to stage the meeting at a hotel pool.

“They actually wanted to have the meeting by the hotel pool,” Van Hollen said. “They wanted to put me right overlooking the pool. You’re absolutely right that the Salvadoran authorities tried to deceive people. They tried to make it look like he was in paradise.”

Karl asked if Van Hollen had walked into a trap.

“It wasn’t a trap. My goal was to meet with him and make sure I could tell his wife and family he was OK. That was my goal, and I achieved that goal,” the senator said.

Van Hollen also weighed in on broader implications for presidential power.

“This is a person who the United States courts have determined was illegally taken from the United States,” he said. “And my whole purpose here is to make sure that we observe the rule of law, the Constitution, due process, rights….It just goes to show the lengths that Bukele and Trump will go to try to deceive people about what this case is all about, and simply complying with the Supreme Court order to facilitate his return and make sure he gets due process.”

Of the Trump administration, Van Hollen said: “Here’s where they should put their facts: They should put it before the court. They should put up or shut up in court, because the district court judge in this case said, and I quote, ‘They put no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or to any other terrorist activity.’”

On criticism from Republicans that Democrats are defending a gang member, Van Hollen pushed back forcefully.

“The idea that you can’t defend people’s rights under the Constitution and fight MS-13 and gang violence is a very dangerous idea. That’s the idea the president wants to put out. That’s why they’re spreading all these lies.” Van Hollen said. “I would say that anyone that’s not prepared to defend the constitutional rights of one man when they threaten the constitutional rights of all doesn’t deserve to lead.”

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(WASHINGTON) — Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., set out to El Salvador this week to find Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man at the center of an erroneous deportation, and get answers about his condition.

While he was relieved to get a chance to meet the Abrego Garcia face to face on Thursday, the senator slammed El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and President Donald Trump for what he said was a setup to defame him and the deportee.

Van Hollen said Friday that what he called “margarita-gate” was manufactured by Bukele and his officials after they posted a photo of his meeting with Abrego Garcia at a table with what appeared to be filled margarita glasses.

The senator said those glasses were put on the table partway during the meeting by El Salvador officials and that neither he nor the deportee touched the drinks.

“Everything happens because Bukele says it could happen. And if you look at the video you sent out right afterwards with the fake margaritas, you can see that all of that was a setup,” Van Hollen told reporters.

The senator poked holes in the story that was being spread by Bukele’s and Trump’s allies and said the entire meeting was suspect from the beginning.

After being denied access to CECOT, the super prison that the government originally said was holding Abrego Garcia, Van Hollen said he was ready to fly back to the U.S. Thursday but got a message that the deportee was available to meet.

The El Salvador government tried to have the meeting poolside, but the senator said he had them take it indoors in a dining area. During the meeting, Van Hollen and Abrego Garcia had glasses of water and a coffee cup on their tables, which appeared in a photo posted by the senator.

The senator said that at one point during the hourlong meeting, officials put glasses on the table that appeared to have liquid inside with salt or sugar rims on top. Van Hollen said he had no idea what the liquid was.

The glass in front of Abrego Garcia had less liquid than the other glass, according to Van Hollen.

“They tried to make it look like, I assume, that he drank out of it,” the senator said.

Van Hollen said the insinuations about the margarita glasses don’t hold up under scrutiny.

“They made a mistake,” he said of the government officials. “If you sip out of one of those glasses, some of whatever it was, salt or sugar, would disappear. You would see a gap. There’s no gap. No one drank anything.”

El Salvador’s government has not commented on the senator’s claim.

Trump was asked about the photo of the meetings with the glasses earlier Friday and criticized Van Hollen as “fake” and repeated disputed claims that Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 member.

“They’re all fake, and they have no interest in that prisoner. That prisoner’s record is unbelievably bad,” Trump said before listing crimes of which other MS-13 members have been convicted.

None of the allegations made about Abrego Garcia’s being part of MS-13 have been made in court documents. Abrego Garcia’s family and attorneys have denied the gang allegations.

Van Hollen stressed that Trump is trying to divert attention from the fact that the U.S. government is not complying with the Supreme Court’s unanimous order that it facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. by bringing up gang violence.

“I mean, this is a guy who’s been in CECOT. This guy has been detained. They want to create this appearance that life was just lovely for Kilmar, which, of course, is a big fat lie,” he said.

The senator added that the case goes beyond Abrego Garcia.

“This case is not about just one man. It’s about protecting the constitutional rights of everyone who resides in the United States of America,” he said.

Copyright © 2025, ABC Audio. All rights reserved.

(ANNAPOLIS, Md.) — The Navy said it canceled a speaking engagement at its academy in Annapolis, Maryland, with popular podcaster and author Ryan Holiday because it wanted to steer clear of what it saw as political content aimed at young naval officers.

Holiday, who speaks frequently about the value of stoicism and has written several books, including “The Obstacle is the Way,” said he had planned to speak to the midshipmen about the “pursuit of wisdom.”

Holiday said he shared his briefing slides in advance with the Navy, which included a reference to the New York Times’ story about the U.S. Naval Academy’s recent decision to pull some 381 books from its library. The Navy asked him to omit the reference, and Holiday said he refused.

“The idea that there are topics that are off limits or that they can’t handle is absurd on its face,” Holiday told ABC News.

When asked why Holiday’s speech was canceled, the Navy said it opted to make a “schedule change that aligns with its mission of preparing midshipmen for careers of service to our country.”

“The Naval Academy is an apolitical institution,” it added. “It is focused on developing midshipmen morally, mentally and physically in order to cultivate honorable leaders, create a culture of excellence and prepare future officers for military service.”

Holiday said the Navy hadn’t given him guidance in advance of the speech and that he didn’t see his presentation as overtly political because he wasn’t telling the midshipmen how to vote. He said it shouldn’t have been a surprise to the Navy that he’d want to discuss current events.

“I assumed we had the basic … standards of academic independence,” Holiday said.

The Navy pulled the books after President Donald Trump ordered the military to stop “promoting, advancing, or otherwise inculcating the following un-American, divisive, discriminatory, radical, extremist, and irrational theories.”

Included in the list of books removed from the academy library is “I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings” by Maya Angelou and “How to be an Antiracist” by Ibram X. Kendi.

A separate visit to the academy by filmmaker Ken Burns also was canceled recently, although the cancelation does not appear to be tied to a dispute over content. A spokesperson for Burns said the award-winning documentarian had planned to meet privately with faculty and staff later this month and now hopes to visit the school in October instead.

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