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Sen. Chris Van Hollen sidesteps whether Kilmar Abrego Garcia was MS-13 gangbanger when asked on CNN

Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Sunday repeatedly asked whether Kilmer Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gangbangger, as the Trump administration claims.

Van Hollen (D-MD), who met with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador on Thursday, accused President Trump of trying to change subjects due to concerns about the due process, but he himself tried to shift the argument from MS-13.

Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen was featured on CNN’s “The Status of the Union” on April 20, 2025. CNN
Kilmar Abrego Garcia can be seen in undated images. Via Reuters

“What Donald Trump is trying to do here is to change the subject,” Van Hollen said on Sunday CNN’s “The State of the Union” when asked about Abrego Garcia’s MS-13 relationship. “The subject at hand is that he and his administration are defiing court orders to grant Abrego Garcia the right to the due process.”

Sen. Chris Van Hollen of D-MD speaks with Kilmer Abrego Garcia, a Salvadra immigrant who lives in Maryland and was deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration. President Nayib Bukele/UPI/Shutterstock
Cecilia Garcia de Abrego, a family of Jennifer Vasquez Sula, Cesar Abrego Garcia and Kilmer Abrego Garcia, will be holding a press conference after returning from a visit to El Salvador. Reuters

“They are trying to sue what to do in court on social media.”

Abrego Garcia, who illegally entered the United States in 2011, was deported to his home country in El Salvador last month, despite a 2019 court order preventing deportation there due to concerns that he could face gang violence.

Van Hollen previously accused the Trump administration of lying about Abrego Garcia’s relationship with MS-13.

The Trump administration claims Abrego Garcia discovered he had “cash and drug rolls” when he was taken into custody, and he was “arrested along with two other members of MS-13.”

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