The continuing struggle to return Kilmar Abrego García again residence to the USA isn’t nearly one man, it’s about defending the freedoms of all People, say a variety of Congressional members who’ve been in search of the Maryland dad and union brother’s launch.
“I’m not defending the person, I’m defending the rights of this man to due course of,” his senator, Chris Van Hollen, mentioned on “This Week” final Sunday. “And the Trump administration has admitted in court docket that he was wrongfully detained and wrongfully deported. My mission and my function is to ensure that we uphold the rule of legislation, as a result of if we take it away from him, we do jeopardize it for everyone else.” Watch beneath:
Abrego García, the husband of a U.S. citizen and disabled U.S. citizen youngster, has been imprisoned in Central America for greater than a month now after being kidnapped by the Trump administration regardless of having acquired protections underneath a Trump-appointed decide in the course of the first Trump administration.
One report has discovered that as many as 90% of the boys kidnapped to El Salvador with none due course of haven’t any legal document, a truth that ought to ship a chill down the backbone of all People who cherish rule of legislation and our freedoms. As a result of when you deprive one individual of their constitutional rights, “you threaten the constitutional rights of all people,” as Senator Van Hollen informed FOX Information host Shannon Bream. “I’d hope that every one of us would perceive that precept – you’re a lawyer … I’m not vouching for the person, I’m vouching for his rights.”
Throughout an look on CNN that very same weekend, Senator Van Hollen mentioned that when the administration despicably makes an attempt to border the Maryland dad as a menace, it’s attempting to “change the topic.” As journalist Michelangelo Signorile beforehand reported, the Trump-appointed decide discovered no such threats – and the primary Trump administration didn’t dispute his ruling.
“The topic at hand is that he and his administration are defying a court docket order to present Abrego Garcia his due course of rights,” Sen. Van Hollen continued. “They’re attempting to litigate on social media what they need to be doing within the courts.”
DANA BASH: “are you able to say with absolute certainty García has by no means been in MS-13?”VAN HOLLEN: “Trump is attempting to vary the topic” away from due course of 🎯 ALSO: Can we are saying “with absolute certainty” Dana was by no means in MS-13? Her Q is backwards. That’s the purpose.
— The Tennessee Holler (@thetnholler.bsky.social) 2025-04-20T15:16:13.960Z
Whereas Senator Van Hollen has to this point been the one member of Congress who has been permitted to fulfill with Abrego García, others who’ve visited the nation are additionally talking out in protection of the detained males and due course of.
“That is about due course of that each individual in the USA deserves due course of underneath the Structure, no matter whether or not they’re a citizen, a brief resident, a pupil on a visa,” mentioned Rep. Robert Garcia (CA-42), who traveled to El Salvador earlier this week with Reps. Maxwell Frost (FL-10), Yassamin Ansari (AZ-03), and Maxine Dexter (OR-3). “Everybody deserves that proper, and that’s being proper now taken aside. And so, we had been there to advocate for Kilmar and for others as effectively.” Rep. Garcia has additionally expressed deep fear about Andry Hernandez Romero, an brazenly homosexual man and make-up artist who fled Venezuela solely to be disappeared to El Salvador over an innocuous set of tattoos. His household and advocates had no concept the place he’d been despatched to till he appeared in pictures taken by Time journal photographer Philip Holsinger in El Salvador.
“Holsinger informed us he heard a younger man say: ‘I’m not a gang member. I’m homosexual. I’m a stylist,’” 60 Minutes reported. “And that he cried for his mom as he was slapped and had his head shaved.”
“It’s terrifying,” mentioned Lindsay Toczylowski, his lawyer and govt director of Immigrant Defenders Legislation Heart. “As a result of we don’t know what is going on to him.” She added that if it could possibly occur to him, “it could possibly occur to a inexperienced card holder. It may well occur to a U.S. citizen. That ought to chill us all.”
Two crown tattoos had been the one proof the federal government introduced in Andry’s asylum case earlier than he was despatched to a Salvadoran jail.Immigration authorities suspected the tattoo was gang-related, however his lawyer says his dad and mom’ names are beneath the crowns, they usually honor his mother and pop.
— 60 Minutes (@60minutes.bsky.social) 2025-04-07T02:16:51.423Z
“You will have a person, a Maryland resident, a union member whose union management has been calling for his aid, married to a U.S. citizen right here with authorized standing, who was kidnapped, arrested, wrongly deported to El Salvador,” Rep. Ansari mentioned about Abrego García. “That may be a terrifying prospect whether it is allowed to be continued and let it go, as a result of it opens the door for this to occur once more. It emboldens the Trump administration to proceed to vanish folks.”
In one other interview, Rep. Ansari referred to as the Trump administration’s defiance of court docket orders a “constitutional disaster.” Like Sen. Van Hollen, Rep. Frost additionally pulled no punches on FOX Information. Watch two clips beneath:
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) joined Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Robert Garcia (D-CA), and Maxine Dexter (D-OR) on an pressing, self-funded mission to El Salvador, calling for the discharge of Kilmar Abrego Garcia —
— NowThis Affect (@nowthisimpact.bsky.social) 2025-04-23T17:37:15.727Z
Frost: I am right here to speak about the truth that he represents a really huge downside with this administration that they haven’t any downside scooping any person up primarily based on tattoos and vibes and sending them to a international nations jail.
The Trump administration’s makes an attempt to quietly disappear dozens of harmless contributors in violation of their due course of rights is not only an immigration struggle, it is likely one of the most necessary civil rights fights of our time. Simply days in the past, Trump casually said that he would search to purge “residence growns” – translation: U.S. residents – to El Salvador. If it could possibly occur to one in all us – equivalent to Kilmar Abrego García, Andry Hernandez Romero, or any of the opposite males disappeared to international prisons – it could possibly occur to all of us.
“Due course of is the language of a constitutional democracy, and so we now have to talk that language so folks can perceive different folks’s conditions,” mentioned Rep. Jamie Raskin (MD-08). “And I do imagine that if we don’t arise for the due course of rights of non-citizens, they are going to rapidly trample the due course of rights of residents.”
