President Trump’s signal policy — and the one that is working the best for him — is immigration.
Polling shows that President Trump&#8217;s immigration policy is highly popular. It&#8217;s not just because Americans are sick and tired of the open borders policy of the Biden administration. It&#8217;s also because Democrats continue to take the worst possible tack when it comes to this sort of stuff.
The tack they should be taking on immigration right now is that President Trump is right to close the border, that he is correct to unleash ICE, to go find criminal illegal immigrants and deport them — but we need to obey the law.
That would be the intelligent approach to this particular issue. But Democrats have decided that the smart approach is to shove their heads directly up their own a**es. What that means is that they are instead going out of their way to praise MS-13 members and suggest that President Trump is wrong to try and deport all of those people.
This led to the awkward situation of absolute dolt Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland — who has the IQ of a turnip — going down to El Salvador to meet with a man named Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is a suspected MS-13 member and whose wife accused him of allegedly beating her.
Garcia was deported to El Salvador, but the Trump DOJ said it was a processing issue mistake. Thus, Democrats should have said, “Listen, everyone deserves due process. If you are here on a green card, you deserve whatever the due process is for a green card holder. If you are here as an illegal immigrant, you deserve whatever due process is available to you under the law. Due process shouldn&#8217;t be violated; it&#8217;s sacrosanct in the United States.”
<h3><a href="https://www.dailywire.com/episode/ep-2183-pope-francis-dead-what-comes-next-member-exclusive?elementPosition=2&amp;row=2&amp;rowHeadline=Latest+Episodes&amp;rowType=Horizontal+Show+Episodes+Carousel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">WATCH: The Ben Shapiro Show</a></h3>
That&#8217;s the argument they should have made. Instead, because they have an internal emotional necessity to valorize people who are “victims” of the Trump administration, they&#8217;ve decided to treat people who are actually quite bad with Sympathy. This led to the awkward spectacle of Chris Van Hollen being asked if the person he visited down in El Salvador and had drinks with was a member of MS-13.
And he couldn’t answer the question.
“What Donald Trump is trying to do here is change the subject,” Van Hollen <a href="https://www.mediaite.com/tv/van-hollen-deflects-twice-after-cnns-dana-bash-asks-point-blank-if-abrego-garcia-is-a-member-of-ms-13/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told CNN’s Dana Bash</a>. “The subject at hand is that he and his administration are defying a court order to give Abrego Garcia his due process rights. They are trying to litigate on social media what they should be doing in the courts. They need to put up or shut up in the courts.”
“But since you were the one person to have met with him and since this is a thing, you say, on social media, it&#8217;s what we hear from Donald Trump and Republicans every day all day long, you didn&#8217;t ask him?” Bash asked.
“I didn&#8217;t ask him that because I know what his answer is,” Van Hollen answered. “What he told me was he was sad and traumatized that he was being imprisoned because he has committed no crimes.”
“Sad and traumatized,” says the likely MS-13 member. You can see Van Hollen trying to backtrack and turn it into a due process argument, which is a better argument for Democrats. 
The Supreme Court, over the course of the last 72 hours, handed out <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/19/politics/supreme-court-alien-enemies-act-order/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener">an order</a> for the Trump administration to respond to an emergency appeal and stated, “The government is directed not to remove any members of the putative class detainees from the United States until further order of this Court.”
Those would be the people being detained under the so-called Alien Enemies Act, which is an 18th-century law designed to allow the expeditious removal of people who are declared wartime enemies by the executive branch of the government.
There was <a href="https://www.supremecourt.gov/opinions/24pdf/24a1007_22p3.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">a dissent</a> by Justices Alito and Justice Thomas, saying:
<blockquote>Shortly after midnight yesterday, the Court hastily and prematurely granted unprecedented emergency relief. &#8230; Although the order does not define the “putative class,” it appears the Court means all members of the class that the habeas petitioners sought to have certified, namely “all non-citizens in custody in the Northern District of Texas who were, are, or would be subject to the March 2025 Presidential Proclamation entitled “Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act Regarding the Invasion of the United States by Tren de Aragua and/or its implementation.</blockquote>
Alito and Thomas criticized the Court for doing all this by saying that even though it&#8217;s not clear the court had jurisdiction, it&#8217;s questionable whether the applicants complied with their obligation to seek emergency injunctive relief in the district court, and that the Court of Appeals is already considering the issue of emergency relief.
They wrote:
<blockquote>The papers before us, while alleging that the applicants were in imminent danger of removal, provided little concrete support for that allegation. …In sum, literally in the middle of the night, the Court issued unprecedented and legally questionable relief without giving the lower courts a chance to rule, without hearing from the opposing party, within eight hours of receiving the application, with dubious factual support for its order, and without providing any explanation for its order. I refused to join the Court’s order because we had no good reason to think that, under the circumstances, issuing an order at midnight was necessary or appropriate. </blockquote>
I think what the rest of the Court would say is, “We wouldn&#8217;t think that was necessary or appropriate either, except for the fact that we&#8217;ve now had situations in which the Trump administration has allegedly ignored the orders of lower courts not to do a deportation and, instead, went ahead with the deportation.”
That&#8217;s the argument being made on the other side of the aisle.
One of the things that should become clear to Republicans at this point is that doing things in meticulous fashion is likely to lead to longer-lasting victories than doing them as one-offs and in quick fashion. That’s because, when it comes to morality, the Trump administration is not only correct, they are unbelievably correct.
Tom Homan, our bulldog border czar, slammed Van Hollen for his sympathy for MS-13 members, <a href="https://grabien.com/story?id=523850" target="_blank" rel="noopener">saying</a>, “What shocks me is that he’s remained silent on the travesty that happened on our southern border. Many people die. Thousands of people die. I met with hundreds of angel moms and dads who buried their children that were murdered by an illegal alien. How many angel moms and dads has he met in the state of Maryland? That&#8217;s what concerns me.”
When it comes to the politics of immigration, Republicans are absolutely right.
But, in addition, if they practice the law correctly, they’ll have longer-lasting victories, because otherwise many of the things they are trying to do might get reversed on appeal, and that would be bad for the Trump administration.
I&#8217;m rooting for the Trump administration to do everything correctly so its policies work to their utmost.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen Meets With Wrongly Imprisoned Man Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia in El Salvador

Deportation, Due Process, And Democrat Delusions

Ben Shapiro

Democrats

Due Process

El Salvador

Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Maryland

Opinion

Supreme Court

U.S. Senate

On Monday, the National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) announced it would cover travel costs for House Democrats to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador amid his wrongful deportation lawsuit — on one condition.
&#8220;The NRCC is offering to pick up the tab for any House Democrat eager to hang out with their new poster child in El Salvador, a confirmed illegal immigrant, MS-13 gang member, and alleged domestic abuser,&#8221; the statement said. &#8220;We just have one condition: Livestream the whole thing. Snap plenty of selfies with your MS-13 buddies — the same violent criminals you’re trying to reimport into American neighborhoods to rape, kill, and terrorize law-abiding citizens.&#8221;
NRCC&#8217;s statement linked to a <a href="https://x.com/KatiePavlich/status/1912616487744950580" target="_blank" rel="noopener">post</a> on X about Abrego Garcia, whom the Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facilitate-not-effectuate-wh-responds-to-scotus-ruling-on-mistakenly-deported-salvadoran" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accuses</a> of being a member of MS-13. Abrego Garcia&#8217;s attorneys <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69777799/1/abrego-garcia-v-noem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deny</a> the claim, but the government has released <a href="https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1396906/dl?inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documents</a> to substantiate the affiliation. A 2021 restraining order <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/deported-illegal-immigrant-who-dems-have-championed-accused-of-beating-wife-court-docs?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News+and+Commentary&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Deported+Illegal+Immigrant+Who+Dems+Have+Championed+Accused+Of+Beating+Wife%3A++Court+Docs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shows</a> Abrego Garcia was accused of beating his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who now says they worked through the incident.
“If out of touch House Democrats are so desperate to cozy up to violent gang members, the least they can do is let Americans watch the show. We’ll pay for the plane tickets, they just can’t forget to smile for the camera while they sell out their constituents,&#8221; said NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella.
The NRCC released its statement on the same day that four House Democrats <a href="https://x.com/AnthonyAdragna/status/1914298706561552550" target="_blank" rel="noopener">arrived</a> in El Salvador to &#8220;pressure&#8221; the Trump administration to abide by a Supreme Court order to &#8220;facilitate&#8221; Abrego Garcia&#8217;s return to the United States. C-SPAN&#8217;s Craig Caplan <a href="https://x.com/CraigCaplan/status/1914337664402079985" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> the Democrats&#8217; offices said their trip &#8220;is not being financed by taxpayer dollars&#8221; after House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/gop-leaders-deny-taxpayer-money-for-dems-to-make-el-salvador-prison-trip" target="_blank" rel="noopener">rejected</a> a <a href="https://robertgarcia.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-robert-garcia-and-congressman-maxwell-frost-demand-oversight-codel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">request</a> for a Congressional Member Delegation (CODEL) to El Salvador.
&#8220;We have arrived in El Salvador. [President Donald] Trump is illegally arresting, jailing, &amp; deporting people with no due process. We must hold the Administration accountable for these illegal acts and demand Kilmar’s release. Today it’s him, tomorrow it could be anyone else,&#8221; Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL) <a href="https://x.com/MaxwellFrostFL/status/1914321852920479774" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on X.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) took a swipe at Frost and his Democrat colleagues who made the journey to El Salvador.
&#8220;Today, House Democrats travel to El Salvador as part of their obsession to bring a violent illegal alien and member of MS-13 BACK INTO the United States,&#8221; Johnson <a href="https://x.com/SpeakerJohnson/status/1914390276266975378" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> on X. &#8220;Could the contrast be more clear? House Republicans remain committed to doing everything we can to protect American families and keep dangerous gang members OUT of our country.&#8221;
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) travelled to El Salvador last week to check on Abrego Garcia, whom he claims is a Maryland &#8220;constituent.&#8221; A <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sipping-margaritas-dem-senator-finally-meets-deported-illegal-immigrant-in-el-salvador" target="_blank" rel="noopener">meeting</a> took place on Thursday evening. Van Hollen later <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1913954303418474622" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conceded</a> during an interview on &#8220;Fox News Sunday&#8221; that his trip to El Salvador was funded by taxpayer dollars.

Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-FL)

GOP Offers To Pay For Dem Trips To El Salvador — On One Condition

Congress

Illegal Immigation

Mike Johnson

Politics

U.S. House of Representatives

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD) issued a stark warning to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele and other foreign leaders, cautioning that Democrats will not &#8220;look kindly&#8221; on those who cooperate with President Donald Trump when they return to power.
In a recent <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dxYsbcWdjS0" target="_blank" rel="noopener">episode</a> of &#8220;Pod Save America,&#8221; Raskin spoke with host and former Obama aide Tommy Vietor about the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant living in Maryland who was deported and sent to prison in his home country of El Salvador despite a 2019 court order prohibiting him from being sent back there. While at a White House meeting with Trump last week, Bukele <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/el-salvador-nayib-bukele-meeting-trump-white-house/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> his nation will not send Abrego Garcia back to the United States, even after the Supreme Court upheld an order for the federal government to <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facilitate-not-effectuate-wh-responds-to-scotus-ruling-on-mistakenly-deported-salvadoran" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;facilitate&#8221;</a> his return.
Vietor said a &#8220;Latin America policy expert&#8221; suggested to him that &#8220;Democrats should threaten to take action against any foreign government that participates in the extraordinary rendition of American citizens.&#8221; He listed cutting off future aid and seeking to prosecute foreign officials as possible forms of retaliation.
Raskin, who is the top Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee, said he liked the idea, calling it a &#8220;complement to something that we need to be doing right now, which is engaging in far more work of transnational democratic solidarity with the democratic governments and the democratic movements and peoples and parties of the world to try to prevent the spread of the lawlessness and the fascist chaos that&#8217;s been unleashed against us.&#8221;
&#8220;But implicit in it,&#8221; Raskin continued, &#8220;should be the idea that if and when we come back to power — and we will — we are not going to look kindly upon people who facilitated &#8230; authoritarianism in our country. That&#8217;s an assault on our Constitution and on our people.&#8221;
The comment prompted rebukes from some of Trump&#8217;s GOP allies on X.
&#8220;[Raskin] says he will go after Trump officials when he returns to power. They haven’t learned a single lesson,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/RichardGrenell/status/1913810950060380439" target="_blank" rel="noopener">quipped</a> Richard Grenell, who is Trump&#8217;s special presidential envoy for special missions and interim director of the Kennedy Center.
&#8220;They aren&#8217;t coming into power any time soon if things continue as they are&#8230; that&#8217;s the only silver lining in their chaos and lunacy,&#8221; <a href="https://x.com/NancyMace/status/1914352540575048113" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC).
RELATED: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-border-czar-tears-into-dem-senator-van-hollen-for-el-salvador-trip" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Trump Border Czar Tears Into Dem Senator Van Hollen For El Salvador Trip</a>

Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-MD)

Raskin Threatens Countries Working With Trump, Says Dems Will Retaliate ‘When We Come Back To Power’

Global Politics

Jamie Raskin

The political and legal battle escalates over an alleged member of a violent gang deported to El Salvador. RFK Jr. launches a series of studies into the causes of autism, prompting both condemnation and praise. And, Democrats take aim at President Donald Trump over his call for the Federal Reserve to lower interest rates, while Trump touts key economic wins.
It’s Monday, April 21, and this is the news you need to know to start your day. If you’d rather listen to your news, today’s edition of the Morning Wire podcast can be heard below:
&nbsp;
<iframe style="width: 100%; max-width: 660px; overflow: hidden; border-radius: 10px;" src="https://embed.podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/rfk-jr-takes-on-autism-fed-fight-4-21-25/id1576594336?i=1000704280091" height="175" frameborder="0" sandbox="allow-forms allow-popups allow-same-origin allow-scripts allow-storage-access-by-user-activation allow-top-navigation-by-user-activation"></iframe>
&nbsp;
<h2>Deportation Debate Continues</h2>
<div id="attachment_909961" style="width: 874px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-909961" class="size-large wp-image-909961" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/GettyImages-2210280248-864x576.jpg" alt="Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) takes questions during a press conference after returning from El Salvador, where he met with wrongly deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, on April 18, 2025 at Dulles International Airport in Dulles, VA." width="864" height="576" />(Photo by Pete Kiehart for The Washington Post via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) is back stateside after visiting suspected gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador.
Van Hollen returned from El Salvador over the weekend after meeting with suspected MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador last week. Garcia was detained and deported to a megaprison there along with more than 200 other suspected gang members last month. Critics have argued that Garcia’s due process rights were violated, and a federal judge has ordered that he be brought back to the United States immediately. The Trump administration has insisted that the matter is out of its hands – and that, gang member or not, Garcia is an illegal alien and should have been deported anyway.
“My goal was to meet with [Abrego Garcia] and make sure I could tell his wife and family he was OK,” Van Hollen told ABC.
When questioned about Garcia’s alleged connection to MS-13, Van Hollen deflected.
“What Donald Trump is trying to do here is change the subject,” Van Hollen <a href="https://x.com/westernlensman/status/1913945751824240693">said</a>. “The subject at hand is that he and his administration are defying a court order to give Abrego Garcia his due process rights. They are trying to litigate on social media what they should be doing in the courts… What [Garcia] told me was he was sad and traumatized that he was being imprisoned because he has committed no crimes, and that goes to the heart of this issue.”
&nbsp;
<h2>RFK Commissions New Studies of Autism &#8216;Epidemic&#8217; </h2>
<div id="attachment_910057" style="width: 880px" class="wp-caption alignnone"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" aria-describedby="caption-attachment-910057" class="size-large wp-image-910057" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Autism-870x576.jpg" alt="" width="870" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Autism-870x576.jpg 870w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Autism-300x199.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Autism-768x508.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Autism-1536x1017.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/Autism-2048x1356.jpg 2048w" sizes="(max-width: 870px) 100vw, 870px" />(Photo by Nora Carol Photography via Getty Images)</div>
Topline: HHS Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is commissioning a series of studies to investigate potential environmental factors that might contribute to autism.
RFK Jr. commissioned the new studies shortly after previous data were released indicating a surge in autism diagnoses in recent years.
“The autism epidemic is running rampant,” Kennedy <a href="https://www.hhs.gov/press-room/autism-epidemic-runs-rampant-new-data-shows-grants.html">said</a>.  “One in 31 American children born in 2014 are disabled by autism. That’s up significantly from two years earlier and nearly five times higher than when the CDC first started running autism surveys<a href="https://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/ss5601a1.htm"> in children born in 1992</a>.. Prevalence for boys is an astounding 1 in 20 and in California it’s 1 in 12.5.”
“President Trump has tasked me with identifying the root causes of the childhood chronic disease epidemic &#8212; including autism,” Secretary Kennedy continued. “We are assembling teams of world-class scientists to focus research on the origins of the epidemic, and we expect to begin to have answers by September.”
The Autism Society of America actually <a href="https://autismsociety.org/statement-on-robert-f-kennedy-jr-s-comments-regarding-the-cause-of-autism-and-misleading-deadline/">condemned</a> Kennedy for those remarks, calling them “harmful, misleading, and unrealistic.” The organization said that autism is a “complex developmental disability” and it’s “neither a chronic illness nor a contagion, that qualifies harmful language like ‘epidemic.’”
Another autism organization, <a href="https://www.autismspeaks.org/what-causes-autism">Autism Speaks</a>, has suggested that the rise in autism cases is largely due to better screening, better understanding of the disorder, and therefore a higher diagnosis rate. The organization said that other genetic and environmental factors are still being studied, but they likely account for only a small part of the increase. Kennedy believes that’s flipped, and that only a small portion of the increase can be attributed to a better diagnostic process.
&nbsp;
<h2>Economic Update</h2>
<div class="image"><img loading="lazy" decoding="async" class="alignnone size-large wp-image-910059" src="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/The-Federal-Reserve-864x576.jpg" alt="" width="864" height="576" srcset="https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/The-Federal-Reserve-864x576.jpg 864w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/The-Federal-Reserve-300x200.jpg 300w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/The-Federal-Reserve-768x512.jpg 768w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/The-Federal-Reserve-1536x1024.jpg 1536w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/The-Federal-Reserve-2048x1365.jpg 2048w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/The-Federal-Reserve-1800x1200.jpg 1800w, https://dw-wp-production.imgix.net/2025/04/The-Federal-Reserve-1200x800.jpg 1200w" sizes="(max-width: 864px) 100vw, 864px" /></div>
Topline: Democrats are up in arms about President Trump&#8217;s latest economic moves, but Team Trump says he&#8217;s doing exactly what Americans elected him to do.
Democrats are accusing Trump of crossing the line by pressuring the Fed Chair, Jerome Powell, to lower interest rates. Powell appears to be digging in, while the president is now openly saying his termination can’t come soon enough.  Powell’s term is scheduled to end May 15, 2026. Trump’s team is reportedly looking into whether there are ways to remove Powell early. Democrats argue that this is an unprecedented violation of the balance of powers.
“There’s a reason we have an independent Fed,” Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) told CNN. “It has served us well through many crises, through downturns, through depressions, through the pandemic. They’re able to respond and stabilize things. And what Jerome Powell is doing right now is warning that these tariffs are having a huge destabilizing effect on our economy and hurting everyday people. And that’s going to affect decisions that the Fed makes. That’s his job and he’s doing it.”
Meanwhile: Trump is maintaining his pause of higher tariffs for most countries – except China – for 90 days, and he’s set a 10% baseline tariff on imports to encourage negotiations. The Trump administration says at least 75 countries have reached out to negotiate at this point. As we’ve reported, the major outlier is China, which has escalated tariffs in response. A few days ago, Trump indicated an openness to making a deal to protect consumers, but no talks with Xi Jinping have been confirmed yet. 
Japanese negotiators met with U.S. officials recently, with Trump citing “big progress.” Toyota is considering shifting RAV4 production to the United States to mitigate the impact of tariffs. Likewise, Trump reported a “great call” with South Korea focusing on steel and automobiles. Vietnam has also offered to remove all tariffs on U.S. goods. Discussions with India are also in progress, with India angling for a bilateral trade agreement to boost trade to $500 billion by 2030.
The European Union has paused retaliatory tariffs on the U.S. and is advocating for a zero-tariff agreement. As for the UK, talks with Prime Minister Keir Starmer are ongoing, with Vice President JD Vance expressing optimism that any deal they reach will be mutually beneficial.

US deports 17 gang-linked criminals in joint operation with El Salvador

Morning Brief: Deportee Battle Escalates, RFK Jr. Takes On Autism & Trump’s Fed Fight

Deportations

MS-13 Gang

Robert F. Kennedy Jr.

Tariffs

A top Republican in Congress rejected on Sunday CNN anchor Dana Bash&#8217;s assertion that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant deported from the United States and sent to prison in his home country of El Salvador, has been robbed of due process.
House Majority Whip Tom Emmer (R-MN) shot back after Bash began an <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2025/04/20/politics/video/sotu-majority-whip-emmer-defends-trump-handling-of-brego-garcia-deportation-case" target="_blank" rel="noopener">interview</a> on &#8220;State of the Union&#8221; by pressing the lawmaker on the case of Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old living in Maryland who was sent back to El Salvador last month despite a 2019 court order prohibiting him from being sent back to the country.
&#8220;I want to start with what the core issue is here. And that is the fact that the administration detained and deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia without any due process, violated a judge&#8217;s deportation protection order, refused to provide evidence in court to back up its allegations. Does that concern you?&#8221; Bash asked.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/GOPMajorityWhip?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@GOPMajorityWhip</a>: &#8220;President Trump made it very clear — [he&#8217;s] going to get rid of the gang members, the murderers, the rapists, the terrorists &#8230; and I think they&#8217;re doing a good job of it.&#8221; <a href="https://t.co/n7U5zjan5x">pic.twitter.com/n7U5zjan5x</a>
— Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1913948030983700628?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&#8220;Actually, if you look at this, it&#8217;s very interesting when people talk about the fact that this illegal alien, who is not a resident of the U.S. — he is a citizen of El Salvador — actually did have due process in an asylum hearing, where his request for asylum was rejected,&#8221; Emmer said, noting how Abrego Garcia was granted protection from being returned to El Salvador in 2019 due to concerns about local gangs endangering him, but not asylum.
&#8220;The Trump administration, as part of the promise that they made during the campaign, President Trump made it very clear, I&#8217;m going to get rid of the gang members, the murderers, the rapists, the terrorists. And this is part of that process in keeping that campaign promise. And I think they&#8217;re doing a good job at it,&#8221; Emmer said.
Emmer was alluding to how the Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facilitate-not-effectuate-wh-responds-to-scotus-ruling-on-mistakenly-deported-salvadoran" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accuses</a> Abrego Garcia of being a member of MS-13, which has been <a href="https://www.state.gov/designation-of-international-cartels/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">designated</a> as a foreign terror organization, and has released <a href="https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1396906/dl?inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documents</a> to substantiate the affiliation. Abrego Garcia&#8217;s attorneys <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69777799/1/abrego-garcia-v-noem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deny</a> the claim.
&#8220;There&#8217;s no evidence that was provided because there was no hearing in which to do so that he is either a murderer or a criminal or a gang member,&#8221; Bash replied. &#8220;Isn&#8217;t that something that should be provided to a judge, even an immigration judge, before somebody who has been in this country illegally, no question, but has been in this country and has appeared before judges before should be afforded?&#8221;
Emmer responded, &#8220;Actually, I think he was afforded that due process. In this case, an illegal alien was transported back to El Salvador. The administration initially thought it was a mistake, subsequently says it was not a mistake. The courts, interestingly, have suggested that we need to understand what &#8216;facilitate&#8217; means in the order. So they have deferred back to the lower court, Dana, to tell the administration, &#8216;facilitate&#8217; means this. And what&#8217;s going on in El Salvador now is, you have a citizen of El Salvador that is within the country of El Salvador. It really isn&#8217;t the U.S.&#8217; ability to go in and remove someone. It&#8217;ll be up to the president of El Salvador.&#8221;
Bash later read from a federal appeals court <a href="https://storage.courtlistener.com/recap/gov.uscourts.ca4.178400/gov.uscourts.ca4.178400.8.0.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">order</a> refusing to stop a judge’s demand for Trump administration officials to testify on whether they are making an effort to &#8220;facilitate&#8221; getting Garcia back, saying, &#8220;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 &#8230; This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.&#8221;
Asked for his response, Emmer said, &#8220;Yes, and it&#8217;s been referred to the lower court to interpret what &#8216;facilitate&#8217; means. Dana, you make it — you want to make it about a much bigger thing. This is isolated incidents like the order that was issued after midnight this morning saying that they&#8217;re going to delay some deportations so that the lower court process can continue. These will happen on a case-by-case basis. And, again, the administration is absolutely following the law. I see nothing that they have done that&#8217;s illegal. Certainly, judges may disagree here and there, but the Supreme Court has been pretty good about supporting what this administration is doing legally.&#8221;

House Majority Whip Tom Emmer, R-Minn

Top Republican Takes On CNN Anchor’s Claim That Abrego Garcia Did Not Get Due Process

Illegal Immigration

U.S.

On Sunday, Trump border czar Tom Homan condemned Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) for making a taxpayer funded trip to El Salvador to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant who was deported from the United States last month.
Homan redirected a question from ABC&#8217;s &#8220;This Week&#8221; by anchor Jonathan Karl when pressed about Abrego Garcia, who has been imprisoned in El Salvador, his home country. Abrego Garcia&#8217;s legal team has been <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69777799/1/abrego-garcia-v-noem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fighting</a> the federal government in a high-profile court to secure his return to the United States. Van Hollen, who claims Abrego Garcia is a Maryland “constituent” who endured an &#8220;abduction and unlawful deportation,&#8221; met the man on Thursday.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
.<a href="https://twitter.com/RealTomHoman?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@RealTomHoman</a> : &quot;A U.S. senator traveled to El Salvador on taxpayers&#39; dime to meet with a MS-13 gang member &#8230; How many Angel Moms and Dads has he met in the state of Maryland?&quot; <a href="https://t.co/dkpuxWGIMn">pic.twitter.com/dkpuxWGIMn</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1913956139504480315?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&#8220;Sen. Van Hollen is — obviously got a chance to meet with [Abrego Garcia], but he had to travel to El Salvador to get any information. Is (sic) that concern you at all? I mean, these are people sent by — I mean, in his case, sent by the United States, and not even a U.S. senator could get any information about his whereabouts, or the condition of his incarceration, without actually going down and making the trip to El Salvador himself?&#8221; Karl asked.
&#8220;Well, he obviously knew his whereabouts, because he went there to see him. But you know, what bothers me more than that is a U.S. senator traveled to El Salvador on taxpayer dime to meet with an MS-13 gang member, public safety threat, terrorist. I mean, in the meantime, the day before he traveled, an illegal alien was arrested for murder, was released to the streets rather than honoring an ICE detainer in his very own state,&#8221; Homan retorted.
The Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facilitate-not-effectuate-wh-responds-to-scotus-ruling-on-mistakenly-deported-salvadoran" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accuses</a> Abrego Garcia of being a member of MS-13, which has been <a href="https://www.state.gov/designation-of-international-cartels/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">designated</a> as a foreign terror organization, and has released <a href="https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1396906/dl?inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documents</a> and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dem-senator-van-hollen-did-not-ask-deported-illegal-immigrant-ms-13" target="_blank" rel="noopener">photo</a> evidence to substantiate the affiliation. Abrego Garcia&#8217;s attorneys <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69777799/1/abrego-garcia-v-noem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deny</a> the claim.
On CNN, Van Hollen <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dem-senator-van-hollen-did-not-ask-deported-illegal-immigrant-ms-13" target="_blank" rel="noopener">dared</a> the Trump administration to bring up the gang affiliation claim in Abrego Garcia’s ongoing deportation case. The senator also <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1913954303418474622" target="_blank" rel="noopener">conceded</a> during an interview on &#8220;Fox News Sunday&#8221; that his trip to El Salvador was funded by taxpayer dollars.
Homan went on to criticize Van Hollen over the border crisis during President Joe Biden&#8217;s administration.
&#8220;What concerns me is Van Hollen never went to the border the last four years under Joe Biden, when he had a 600% increase in sex trafficking in women and children,&#8221; Homan said. &#8220;You have a record number of known inspected terrorists crossing that border. You had a quarter of a million Americans die from fentanyl overdose because of the open border. You had over 4,000 illegal aliens died making that journey, which is an historic record. What shocks me is he&#8217;s remained silent on the travesty that happened on the southern border. Many people died, thousands of people died. I met with hundreds of Angel moms and dads who buried their children that were murdered by illegal aliens. How many Angel moms and dads has he met in the state of Maryland? That&#8217;s what concerns me.&#8221;
Last week, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/white-house-calls-surprise-briefing-with-patty-morin-whose-daughter-was-killed-by-illegal-alien?author=Virginia+Kruta&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=White+House+Calls+Surprise+Briefing+With+Patty+Morin%2C+Whose+Daughter+Was+Killed+By+Illegal+Alien" target="_blank" rel="noopener">criticized</a> Van Hollen and other Democrats who have rallied in support of Abrego Garcia during a press briefing alongside <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-the-briefing-room-an-angel-mom-begs-white-house-media-to-tell-the-truth-about-illegal-crime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Patty Morin</a>, whose daughter, Rachel, 37, was raped and murdered in Maryland two years ago by another illegal immigrant from El Salvador.
“It’s appalling and sad that Senator Van Hollen and the Democrats applauding his trip to El Salvador today are incapable of having any shred of common sense or empathy for their own constituents and our citizens,” Leavitt said.

US Border Czar Tom Homan

Trump Border Czar Tears Into Dem Senator Van Hollen For El Salvador Trip

Border Crisis

Tom Homan

Trump Administration

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) said on Sunday he did not bother to press Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant deported from the United States and sent to prison in his home country of El Salvador, to answer whether he is or has ever been a member of MS-13 when the two met last week.
The Democrat, who contends that Abrego Garcia is a “constituent” of Maryland who was unlawfully deported, told CNN&#8217;s Dana Bash he did not ask &#8220;because I know what his answer is: what he told me was he was sad and traumatized that he was being in prison because he has committed no crimes, and that goes to the heart of this issue because he&#8217;s being denied his due process rights.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
BASH: “Can you say with absolute certainty that he is not, nor has he ever been a member of the MS-13 gang, and did you ask him point blank?”
VAN HOLLEN: “What Donald Trump is trying to do here is change the subject. The subject at hand is that he and his administration are… <a href="https://t.co/QlXZZANLXf">pic.twitter.com/QlXZZANLXf</a>
&mdash; State of the Union (@CNNSOTU) <a href="https://twitter.com/CNNSOTU/status/1913945462542942658?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 20, 2025</a></blockquote>
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Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old living in Maryland, was detained and deported to El Salvador last month <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-blasts-legacy-media-for-focusing-on-deported-salvadoran-ignoring-angel-mom-patty-morin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">despite</a> a 2019 court order prohibiting him from being sent back to the country. His legal team has been <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69777799/1/abrego-garcia-v-noem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fighting</a> the federal government in a high-profile court to secure his return to the United States.
The Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facilitate-not-effectuate-wh-responds-to-scotus-ruling-on-mistakenly-deported-salvadoran" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accuses</a> Abrego Garcia of being a member of MS-13, which has been <a href="https://www.state.gov/designation-of-international-cartels/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">designated</a> as a foreign terror organization, and has released <a href="https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1396906/dl?inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documents</a> to substantiate the affiliation. Among them was a 2019 interview sheet in which police wrote that a confidential informant identified Abrego Garcia as a member of the gang. Abrego Garcia&#8217;s attorneys <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69777799/1/abrego-garcia-v-noem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deny</a> the claim.
After Van Hollen met with Abrego Garcia on Thursday, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted photos of the encounter on X. One photo <a href="https://x.com/nayibbukele/status/1913028548001923259" target="_blank" rel="noopener">showed</a> there were tattoos on the knuckles of Abrego Garcia&#8217;s left hand, a possible sign of gang membership.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the “death camps” &amp; “torture”, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!🍹 <a href="https://t.co/r6VWc6Fjtn">pic.twitter.com/r6VWc6Fjtn</a>
&mdash; Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1913028548001923259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
President Donald Trump then posted on social media a photo of himself holding a photo of a hand. It was titled &#8220;Kilmar Abrego Garcia MS-13 Tattoo&#8221; and showed a close-up picture of a hand with a cannabis leaf, smiley face, cross, and skull tattooed across four knuckles. In his post, Trump alluded to the 2019 immigration case and a 2021 restraining order that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/deported-illegal-immigrant-who-dems-have-championed-accused-of-beating-wife-court-docs?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News+and+Commentary&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Deported+Illegal+Immigrant+Who+Dems+Have+Championed+Accused+Of+Beating+Wife%3A++Court+Docs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shows</a> Abrego Garcia was accused of beating his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who now says they worked through the incident.
&#8220;This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such &#8216;a fine and innocent person.&#8217; They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13, beat up his wife, etc. I was elected to take bad people out of the United States, among other things. I must be allowed to do my job. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such “a fine and innocent person.” They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found… <a href="https://t.co/31sNr2k1SK">pic.twitter.com/31sNr2k1SK</a>
&mdash; Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1913358867708493982?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
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&nbsp;
Van Hollen insisted that the president is trying to distract people and dared the Trump administration to bring up the gang affiliation claim in Abrego Garcia&#8217;s ongoing deportation case.
&#8220;He and his administration are defying a court order to give Abrego Garcia his due process rights. They are trying to litigate on social media what they should be doing in the courts they need to put up or shut up in the courts,&#8221; Van Hollen said. &#8220;Let me tell you, I decided to write this down so I could be absolutely accurate as to what federal district Court Judge Zennis said about these allegations by the Trump administration, quote, &#8216;No evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or any terrorist activity has been presented to the court.&#8217; That&#8217;s where to litigate this. It&#8217;s been litigated in many other places, so I&#8217;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 Donald Trump to go off on social media.&#8221;

Sen. Chris Van Hollen

Dem Senator Says He Did Not Ask Deported Illegal Immigrant About MS-13

Donald Trump

Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen (MD) is playing defense after his photo-op with an illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member didn&#8217;t go as planned.
As highlighted by <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sipping-margaritas-dem-senator-finally-meets-deported-illegal-immigrant-in-el-salvador?author=Daniel+Chaitin&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=6&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Hotwire&amp;rowType=Four+Column+Grid&amp;title=‘Sipping+Margaritas’%3A+Dem+Senator+Finally+Meets+Deported+Illegal+Immigrant+In+El+Salvador" target="_blank" rel="noopener">The Daily Wire</a>, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele mocked Van Hollen&#8217;s meeting with migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was sent to an El Salvador prison by the Trump administration.
“Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the ‘death camps’ &amp; ‘torture’, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!” Bukele said, adding a tropical drink emoji to the post.
Two of the photos, seen below, include glasses with what appears to be either salt or sugar on the rim with a cherry garnish.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the “death camps” &amp; “torture”, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!🍹 <a href="https://t.co/r6VWc6Fjtn">pic.twitter.com/r6VWc6Fjtn</a>
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1913028548001923259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
Responding to the mockery, Van Hollen claims he didn&#8217;t sip &#8220;any margaritas or sugar water or whatever it is&#8221; when he met with Garcia, despite the glasses being put on the table. Notably, it was Van Hollen&#8217;s office that provided some photos of the meeting to the media.
&#8220;Let me just be very clear, neither of us touched the drinks that were in front of us,&#8221; the Democrat said, according to Fox News. &#8220;And if you want to play a little Sherlock Holmes, I’ll tell you how you can know that. … 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.&#8221;
&#8220;Nobody drank any margaritas or sugar water or whatever it is,&#8221; he emphasized.
Van Hollen then turned his attention to Bukele and President Donald Trump, seemingly blaming them for the spoiled photo-op.
&#8220;This is a lesson into the lengths that President Bukele will do to deceive people,&#8221; he said. &#8220;And it also shows the lengths that the Trump administration and the president will go to, because when he was asked by a reporter about this, he just went along for the ride.&#8221;
Trump reacted Friday on X to Democrats and their allies in the media defending Garcia, who has a history of allegedly <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/deported-illegal-immigrant-who-dems-have-championed-accused-of-beating-wife-court-docs?author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Deported+Illegal+Immigrant+Who+Dems+Have+Championed+Accused+Of+Beating+Wife%3A+Court+Docs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">beating his wife</a> in addition to alleged MS-13 ties.
&#8220;This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person,'&#8221; Trump wrote. &#8220;They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13, beat up his wife, etc. I was elected to take bad people out of the United States, among other things. I must be allowed to do my job. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
This is the hand of the man that the Democrats feel should be brought back to the United States, because he is such “a fine and innocent person.” They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found… <a href="https://t.co/31sNr2k1SK">pic.twitter.com/31sNr2k1SK</a>
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) <a href="https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1913358867708493982?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
The White House also chimed in, telling Sen. Van Hollen that Garcia is &#8220;NOT coming back&#8221; to the United States.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Fixed it for you, <a href="https://twitter.com/nytimes?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@NYTimes</a>.
Oh, and by the way, <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisVanHollen?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@ChrisVanHollen</a> — he’s NOT coming back. <a href="https://t.co/VoAphh2ZPY">pic.twitter.com/VoAphh2ZPY</a>
— The White House (@WhiteHouse) <a href="https://twitter.com/WhiteHouse/status/1913241658579440126?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sipping-margaritas-dem-senator-finally-meets-deported-illegal-immigrant-in-el-salvador?author=Daniel+Chaitin&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=6&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Hotwire&amp;rowType=Four+Column+Grid&amp;title=‘Sipping+Margaritas’%3A+Dem+Senator+Finally+Meets+Deported+Illegal+Immigrant+In+El+Salvador" target="_blank" rel="noopener">Dem Senator Finally Meets Deported Illegal Immigrant In El Salvador</a>

Democrat Denies Sipping Those Margaritas With Suspected MS-13 Member

Democratic Party

Nayib Bukele

World

Republican leaders in the House have denied requests by Democrats to approve congressional trips to check on deportees at a mega prison in El Salvador.
With a post to X on Friday, House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) revealed a letter in which he told a pair of Democrats that he was rejecting their <a href="https://robertgarcia.house.gov/media/press-releases/congressman-robert-garcia-and-congressman-maxwell-frost-demand-oversight-codel" target="_blank" rel="noopener">demand</a> for authorization of a Congressional Member Delegation (CODEL) to visit the Terrorism Confinement Center or CECOT.
&#8220;If Democrats wish to travel to El Salvador and meet with a foreign illegal MS-13 gang member, they can spend their own money to do so,&#8221; Comer <a href="https://x.com/RepJamesComer/status/1913321711958712768" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> in his social media post that showed a screenshot of the letter. &#8220;I will not approve a single dime of Oversight Committee taxpayer funds for use on the excursion Democrats have requested.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
If Democrats wish to travel to El Salvador and meet with a foreign illegal MS-13 gang member, they can spend their own money to do so.
I will not approve a single dime of Oversight Committee taxpayer funds for use on the excursion Democrats have requested. <a href="https://t.co/ldokDJBTve">pic.twitter.com/ldokDJBTve</a>
— Rep. James Comer (@RepJamesComer) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepJamesComer/status/1913321711958712768?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
Comer&#8217;s letter was addressed to Reps. Robert Garcia (D-CA) and Maxwell Frost (D-FL), who had sent a <a href="https://robertgarcia.house.gov/sites/evo-subsites/robertgarcia.house.gov/files/evo-media-document/garcia-frost-letter.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">request</a> to the chairman this week, saying they wanted to visit CECOT to check on the wellbeing of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who Democrats say has been unlawfully deported and imprisoned, and others held at the prison. Reps. Garcia and Frost noted they would &#8220;gladly include&#8221; any Republicans who wanted to join.
Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old living in Maryland, was detained and deported to El Salvador last month <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-blasts-legacy-media-for-focusing-on-deported-salvadoran-ignoring-angel-mom-patty-morin" target="_blank" rel="noopener">despite</a> a 2019 court order prohibiting him from being sent back to the country. His legal team has been <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69777799/1/abrego-garcia-v-noem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">fighting</a> the federal government in a high-profile court to secure his return to the United States. The Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/facilitate-not-effectuate-wh-responds-to-scotus-ruling-on-mistakenly-deported-salvadoran" target="_blank" rel="noopener">accuses</a> Abrego Garcia of being a member of MS-13, which has been <a href="https://www.state.gov/designation-of-international-cartels/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">designated</a> as a foreign terror organization. Abrego Garcia&#8217;s attorneys <a href="https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/69777799/1/abrego-garcia-v-noem/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">deny</a> that their client is part of the gang, but the government publicly released <a href="https://www.justice.gov/ag/media/1396906/dl?inline" target="_blank" rel="noopener">documents</a> to substantiate the affiliation.
In his letter, Comer said Reps. Garcia and Frost requested that he approve from the oversight panel&#8217;s budget &#8220;official travel for you both to visit the country of El Salvador to meet with a foreign MS-13 gang member whose wife accused him of crimes and who is strongly suspected of human trafficking.&#8221;
The chairman was referring to a 2021 restraining order that <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/deported-illegal-immigrant-who-dems-have-championed-accused-of-beating-wife-court-docs?topStoryPosition=undefined&amp;author=Amanda+Prestigiacomo&amp;category=News+and+Commentary&amp;elementPosition=1&amp;row=1&amp;rowHeadline=Top+Stories&amp;rowType=Top+Stories&amp;title=Deported+Illegal+Immigrant+Who+Dems+Have+Championed+Accused+Of+Beating+Wife%3A++Court+Docs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">shows</a> Abrego Garcia was accused of beating his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who now says they worked through the incident. He also pointed to a <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/kilmar-abrego-garcia-suspected-human-trafficking-report-obtained-fox-news" target="_blank" rel="noopener">memo</a> that said Abrego Garcia was pulled over in 2022 and suspected of human trafficking, although authorities <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/18/us-news/alleged-ms-13-gangbanger-kilmar-abrego-garcia-suspected-of-human-trafficking-feds-say/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">say</a> the Biden administration&#8217;s FBI opted not to make an arrest at that time.
Comer told Reps. Garcia and Frost it is &#8220;absurd that you both displayed active hostility for over two years toward the Committee&#8217;s oversight of the Biden Border crisis and the consequences of millions of illegal aliens entering the country, yet now, you are seeking travel at Committee expense to meet with foreign gang members.&#8221;
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) travelled to El Salvador this week and <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/sipping-margaritas-dem-senator-finally-meets-deported-illegal-immigrant-in-el-salvador" target="_blank" rel="noopener">met</a> with Abrego Garcia on Thursday evening. He claims Abrego Garcia is a “constituent” who endured an “abduction and unlawful deportation.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the “death camps” &amp; “torture”, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!🍹 <a href="https://t.co/r6VWc6Fjtn">pic.twitter.com/r6VWc6Fjtn</a>
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) <a href="https://twitter.com/nayibbukele/status/1913028548001923259?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
Alluding to photos shared by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, Comer quipped to Reps. Garcia and Frost they would be &#8220;pleased to know&#8221; Van Hollen &#8220;was photographed just yesterday in El Salvador enjoying margaritas garnished with cherry slices with the foreign gang member your letter references.&#8221;
Van Hollen, for his part, <a href="https://x.com/CollinRugg/status/1913332841972466132" target="_blank" rel="noopener">claimed</a> neither he nor Abrego Garcia &#8220;touched&#8221; the drinks that appeared to be margaritas. Van Hollen also <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88_htG1N-1w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> Abrego Garcia told him that he had been moved to another detention center with <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=88_htG1N-1w" target="_blank" rel="noopener">&#8220;better&#8221;</a> conditions.
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), similarly rebuffed multiple Democrats pushing for a visit with Abrego Garcia.
&#8220;There is no excuse for Democrats to waste taxpayer dollars visiting and defending a transnational gang member and reported domestic abuser,&#8221; Green said in a <a href="https://homeland.house.gov/2025/04/17/chairman-green-responds-to-homeland-democrats-calls-to-visit-deported-salvadoran-ms-13-gang-member-domestic-abuser/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">statement</a> on Thursday. &#8220;If Democrats care so much about defending this individual, they can use their own personal credit cards — not taxpayers’ money — to virtue-signal to their radical base.&#8221;
Yet another committee leader, House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO), recently shared photos of a trip he took to CECOT.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Thanks to President Trump, the CECOT prison in El Salvador, which is home to some of the country&#8217;s most vicious criminals, now includes illegal immigrants who broke into our country and committed violent acts against Americans.
It is unconscionable that Democrats in Congress are… <a href="https://t.co/nWTxveW9bs">pic.twitter.com/nWTxveW9bs</a>
— Rep. Jason Smith (@RepJasonSmith) <a href="https://twitter.com/RepJasonSmith/status/1912326135934837215?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 16, 2025</a></blockquote>
&#8220;Thanks to President Trump, the CECOT prison in El Salvador, which is home to some of the country&#8217;s most vicious criminals, now includes illegal immigrants who broke into our country and committed violent acts against Americans,&#8221; Smith said. &#8220;It is unconscionable that Democrats in Congress are urging the release of more foreign criminals back into our country.&#8221;

Representative James Comer

GOP Leaders Deny Taxpayer Money For Dems To Make El Salvador Prison Trip

James Comer

This week, Democrats decided to expend their quickly diminishing political capital in defense of a deported Salvadoran illegal immigrant named Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Garcia was deported to El Salvador some weeks ago; the Department of Justice initially admitted that his deportation was an &#8220;administrative error.&#8221; It turns out that Garcia had an order withholding removal to his home country, due to his claims that returning to El Salvador would risk his life. Nonetheless, the administration flew him to that country&#8217;s Terrorism Confinement Center, where he is apparently being held to date.
Initially, a district court judge ruled that Abrego Garcia&#8217;s removal was violative of due process, and that the administration had to &#8220;facilitate&#8221; his return to the United States. The case was elevated to the Supreme Court, which found 9-0 that while the executive branch likely had the power to order his deportation, it still had to follow court orders to &#8220;facilitate&#8221; his temporary return for due process reasons. The Trump administration, for its part, claims that it has already &#8220;facilitated&#8221; his release from custody — that they&#8217;ve asked Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele nicely to release him, and that Bukele has refused. Bukele sat in the Oval Office with President Donald Trump and said just that: &#8220;The question is preposterous: how can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?&#8221;
Regardless of the legal wrangling over the case — and there is in fact a solid legal basis to the idea that the administration ought to temporarily return Abrego Garcia just to receive a court hearing, after which he can be deported right back again — Democrats have wrong-footed themselves yet again. This week, Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., decided to fly down to El Salvador to visit Abrego Garcia; other Congressional Democrats vowed to do the same. In their telling, Abrego Garcia is an innocent caught up in the mills of wrongheaded justice.
But Abrego Garcia is indeed a nefarious character. It turns out that aside from his illegal immigration status, Garcia&#8217;s wife accused him of &#8220;violently beating her multiple times&#8221; in a 2021 court filing, according to the Daily Mail. When he was originally arrested in 2019, arrest records show he was found with cash and drugs, as well as two other members of MS-13, while wearing gear associated with MS-13. And this is the person Democrats have tried to valorize.
Abrego Garcia isn&#8217;t the only awful person Democrats have attempted to sanctify. Democrats have also rushed to the defense of terror supporter and Columbia student visa holder Mohsen Mahdawi, who posted on his social media in commemoration of his terrorist cousin: &#8220;a leader of a fierce resistance fighter.&#8221; The New York Times went so far as to headline his story, &#8220;He Wanted Peace in the Middle East. ICE Wants to Deport Him.&#8221;
Meanwhile, Democrats have little to say about the illegal immigrant killer of Rachel Morin, a 37-year-old mother of five who was raped and murdered; Rachel&#8217;s mother, Patty, visited the White House briefing room to explain the case to a media that largely ignored it. Democrats similarly have gone silent about the burning of the home of Gov. Josh Shapiro, D-Pa.; his home was set aflame by an anti-Israel man who said he wanted to let Shapiro know he &#8220;will not take part in his plans for what he wants to do to the Palestinian people.&#8221; Democrats&#8217; inconsistency here speaks volumes: If you are an illegal immigrant criminal, they will either ignore it or downplay it; if you are a visa-holder or criminal who favors Hamas, they will do the same.
Democrats have a wide variety of lines they can use to attack the Trump administration. But their binary view of the world — opponents of Trump must by necessity be good — leads them down dark pathways. Which means that no matter how much they decry the lack of due process, nobody will trust them with the levers of power.
* * *
Copyright 2025 Creators Syndicate

EL SALVADOR-US-POLITICS-JUSTICE-MIGRATION

Democrats’ Bizarrely Misplaced Empathy

Democrats' Bizarrely Misplaced Empathy

illegal immigrants

Leftists

Liberals

President Trump

President Donald Trump ripped the legacy media on Friday, saying that it has focused its coverage on a deported Salvadoran man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, while ignoring the grieving mother of Rachel Morin, a Maryland woman who was brutally murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2023.
For weeks, Democratic politicians and the legacy media have been zeroed in on the case of Abrego Garcia, who was deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration despite a 2019 court order prohibiting him from being sent back to the country. Trump addressed the deportation of Abrego Garcia while speaking to the media during the swearing-in ceremony for Dr. Mehmet Oz, the new administrator of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services.
&#8220;I&#8217;ve been hit pretty hard by fake shows, fake news, MSDNC in particular,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;Where they talk about how evil I am that this man would be thrown out of our country, who is, according to certified statements that we got, a very violent person. And they want this man to be brought back into our country where he can be free.&#8221;
&#8220;Who they don&#8217;t talk about is that wonderful &#8216;Angel Mom,&#8217; who lost her daughter,&#8221; Trump added, referring to Patty Morin, who was the White House&#8217;s special guest in the briefing room on Wednesday.
&#8220;She spoke unbelievably, I saw it, and the fake news didn&#8217;t pick it up,&#8221; Trump continued. &#8220;She spoke through tears. She&#8217;s devastated. She&#8217;s told me her life is like over.&#8221;
Morin <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/inside-the-briefing-room-an-angel-mom-begs-white-house-media-to-tell-the-truth-about-illegal-crime" target="_blank" rel="noopener">called out reporters</a> in the briefing room, urging them to “tell the truth” about the violent criminals that the Biden administration&#8217;s border policies allowed into the United States.
“It’s more than politics,” she said. “It’s about national security. It’s about protecting Americans. It’s about protecting our children.”
The Trump administration maintains that Abrego Garcia is a member of the violent MS-13 gang and poses a danger to the United States and its citizens. An immigration judge in 2019 ordered that the Salvadoran man living in Maryland be deported, citing his alleged ties to MS-13, but prohibited the federal government from sending him back to El Salvador, where Abrego Garcia feared persecution. Some confusion remains about the judge&#8217;s order, as some argue that it granted Abrego Garcia legal protections to remain in the United States despite having entered the country illegally.
Abrego Garcia&#8217;s case has gone to the courts, and U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has given the Trump administration <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-has-2-weeks-to-show-steps-taken-for-returning-salvadoran-man-judge-orders?author=Zach+Jewell&amp;category=News&amp;elementPosition=7&amp;row=0&amp;rowType=Vertical+List&amp;title=Trump+Admin+Has+2+Weeks+To+Show+Steps+Taken+For+Returning+Salvadoran+Man%2C+Judge+Orders" target="_blank" rel="noopener">two weeks</a> to prove that it has taken steps to return him to the United States. During a meeting in the Oval Office earlier this week, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said that it is “preposterous” to suggest that his government would send Abrego Garcia back to the United States.
During the press conference on Friday, Trump read from a <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/deported-illegal-immigrant-who-dems-have-championed-accused-of-beating-wife-court-docs" target="_blank" rel="noopener">restraining order</a> that accused Abrego Garcia of being violent toward his wife, who is quoted in the order as saying she was afraid to be near him. Abrego Garcia&#8217;s wife, Sura, recently said the couple was &#8220;able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling.&#8221; Sura is now advocating for Abrego Garcia&#8217;s return.
&#8220;This is the man that the Democrats are wanting us to fly back from El Salvador to be a happily ensconced member of the USA family,&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;Isn&#8217;t it a shame?&#8221;

Trump Blasts Legacy Media For Focusing On Deported Salvadoran, Ignoring ‘Angel Mom’ Patty Morin

Executive

Legacy Media

Media

Rachel Morin

President Donald Trump blasted Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) as a &#8220;fool&#8221; on Friday after he traveled to El Salvador to meet with a deported illegal immigrant who officials claim is an MS-13 gang member.
&#8220;Senator 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!!!&#8221; Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114359025219551578">wrote</a> on his Truth Social account.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old illegal immigrant with temporary protected status, was <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-calls-sen-van-hollen-fool-after-meeting-deported-ms-13-suspect-el-salvador">deported</a> to El Salvador&#8217;s &#8220;Terrorism Confinement Center&#8221; (CECOT) last month.
The Trump administration acknowledged in court that his deportation was an “administrative error,” although some in Trump’s orbit now contend he was correctly removed and is a member of the notorious MS-13 gang.
Van Hollen met with Garcia at the prison and later posted on X: “I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return.”
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return. <a href="https://t.co/U9y2gZpxCb">pic.twitter.com/U9y2gZpxCb</a>
&mdash; Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) <a href="https://twitter.com/ChrisVanHollen/status/1913034619710034094?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 18, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
The Democratic senator had earlier claimed Garcia had been &#8220;illegally abducted&#8221; and was being held in a &#8220;notorious prison.&#8221;
The Trump administration said in a <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/04/18/us-news/trump-slams-sen-chris-van-hollen-for-meeting-with-alleged-ms-13-gang-member-kilmar-abrego-garcia/">statement</a> to the New York Post, “Chris 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,” the statement said.
Court documents released by the Trump administration from 2021 reveal that Garcia&#8217;s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, accused him of domestic violence, although the case was dismissed after Vasquez failed to appear in court, saying in a statement that “we were able to work through this situation privately as a family.”
However, at the time, Vasquez said, &#8220;At this point, I am afraid to be close to him. I have multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he [has] left me.&#8221;
Garcia&#8217;s wife released a statement through the Associated Press saying, &#8220;We still have so many questions, hopes, and fears&#8221; regarding her husband&#8217;s situation, even as the previously filed domestic violence allegations have come to light.&#8221;
Both a federal district court and the U.S. Supreme Court have ordered the Trump administration to &#8220;facilitate&#8221; Garcia&#8217;s release and return to the U.S. for proper deportation proceedings.
The situation highlights a broader conflict between the Trump administration&#8217;s immigration enforcement priorities and judicial rulings.

Trump Slams Van Hollen As A ‘Fool’ For Meeting Deported Illegal Alien In El Salvador

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