3 weeks Ago By Jess Phillips
CNN aired another devastating blow to US president Donald Trump this weekend, as senator Chris Van Hollen was quizzed over the mistaken deportation of a Maryland man. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a father of three, was deported to El Salvador after officials alleged he was a member of the MS-13 gang, though that has been disputed by his own lawyers and by a federal judge. He originally entered the US illegally in 2011, but a judge declared he could not be deported back to El Salvador as a gang in his native country had been “targeting him and threatening him with death”.
Trump and the White House have made it clear he will not be welcomed back to the US despite his family suing the administration for their mistake. Now Van Hollen has aired a devastating blow to Trump, telling CNN the mistaken deportation poses a threat to “the constitutional rights of everybody in America.” He said: “I don’t think it’s ever wrong to fight for the constitutional rights of one person, because if we give up on one person’s rights, we threaten everybody’s rights.
“Anyone who is not prepared to stand up and fight for the Constitution doesn’t deserve to lead.” But Van Hollen admitted he didn’t ask Abrego Garcia whether he has ever had ties to MS-13 because he “knows what his answer is”. He said: “What he told me was he was sad and traumatised that he was being in prison because he has committed no crimes.
” Van Hollen added: “What Donald Trump is trying to do here is change the subject. 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.” He added: “They are very much flouting the courts as we speak. As the courts have said, facilitating his return means something more than doing nothing, and they are doing nothing.
Yes, they’re absolutely in violation of the court’s orders as we speak.”.
