At a press briefing on Friday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) spoke about the Trump administration's response to the Kilmar Abrego Garcia deportation.
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00:00I want to say something about the Trump administration's efforts to change the conversation
00:07about what this case is about. This case is about upholding constitutional rights
00:14for Abrego Garcia and for every American. The president, President Trump and the Trump
00:22administration wants to say that those who are fighting to stand up for our constitution
00:27don't want to fight gang violence. That is an outright lie. That is a big, big lie.
00:37I, for one, have been fighting against transnational gang violence, especially MS-13,
00:44for over 20 years, probably for longer than Donald Trump ever uttered those words, MS-13.
00:53Over 20 years ago, I worked to establish a anti-gang task force, a regional anti-gang task force
01:02in the Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia area. I did it in a bipartisan way with then-Congressmen
01:11Frank Wolf and Tom Davis. And we have made substantial progress in this region.
01:18We have a long way still to go, but those efforts have resulted in progress.
01:27So I say to the president of the Trump administration, if you want to make claims about
01:32Mr. Abrego Garcia and MS-13, you should present them in the court, not over social media.
01:40Not at press conferences where you just rattle stuff off. Because here is what the federal district
01:49court judge said about exactly this issue. This is Judge Zippis. So she is the federal district
01:56court judge in the District of Maryland where the case first appeared. This is a quote from her opinion.
02:05Defendants, and in this case, this is the Trump administration she's referring to, have offered
02:11no evidence, have offered no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or any terrorist activity.
02:21And vague allegations of gang association alone do not supersede the express protections
02:27offered under the I-N-A, unquote. She emphasized this point, and I'm quoting,
02:35no evidence before the court connects Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or any other criminal organization,
02:42unquote. In other words, put up in court or shut up.
02:47What the Trump administration did admit in court was that Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been mistakenly detained.
03:05They called it a, quote, administrative error, unquote. An administrative error that has resulted in him being
03:17abducted off the streets of Maryland and put into prison in El Salvador that has deprived him of his
03:25personal freedom and liberty. But rather than fix this grievous error that they agreed had been made in court,
03:34what did the Trump administration do? They upbraided and fired, fired the lawyer who told the truth to the court.
03:46That's what they did. They didn't fix the error. They fired the lawyer who told the truth about this awful, egregious mistake.
03:54And now, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to fix that error that has deprived Mr. Abrego Garcia
04:06of his liberty, they are flaunting, they, the administration, the Trump administration, are flaunting the court order to facilitate
04:12its return. And the government of El Salvador is complicit in that illegal scheme.
04:18Yes. So we need to hold both of them accountable and we can talk more about how to do that.
04:26But as I said at the beginning, this case is not only about one man, as important as that is,
04:34it is about protecting fundamental freedoms and the fundamental principle in the Constitution for due
04:41process that protects everybody who resides in America. This should not be an issue for Republicans or
04:49Democrats. This is an issue for every American who cares about our Constitution, who cares about personal
04:55liberty, who cares about due process, and who cares about what makes America so different, which is adherence
05:04to all of those things. This is an American issue.