The Democrat senator who traveled to El Salvador to meet with a deported illegal migrant and alleged MS-13 member was seen drinking what appeared to be margaritas, infuriating many online.
Chris Van Hollen, the junior senator from Maryland, met Thursday in El Salvador with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man who was sent there by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation.
But it was his decision to sip margaritas with Abrego Garcia, as El Salvador´s President Nayib Bukele put it, that caused a wave of outrage.
Bukele wrote: ‘Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the “death camps” & “torture,” now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!’
Popular Trump-aligned accounts on X, including Libs of TikTok, slammed Van Hollen for his cozy chat with deported thug.
One person pointed out that in Van Hollen’s official post on X, he didn’t include the picture showing the margarita glasses.
Another responded directly to the senator’s post and said, ‘Hey Chris!! This is the real picture. How were those margaritas??? President Bukele posted this one. No hiding the truth from America.’
A third wrote: ‘Senator Chris Van Hollen and Kilmar Abrego Garcia sipping margaritas with salted rims…Thirsty Thursday in El Salvador.’
Pictured: Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen sits with deported illegal migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia with drinks that some claimed were margaritas
El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, who met with President Donald Trump this week, shared the photo of the supposedly alcoholic drinks
Van Hollen has not responded to the social media outrage yet, but in his post about the meeting, he said he called Abrego Garcia’s wife ‘to pass along his message of love.’
The lawmaker did not provide an update on the status of Abrego Garcia, whose attorneys are fighting to force the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the U.S.
A spokesman for the Trump administration remained on message, claiming Van Hollen was worried more about a ‘terrorist’ illegal migrant than his own constituents.
‘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,’ Kush Desai told DailyMail.com.
Bukele’s post on X ended with emojis of the U.S. and El Salvador flags, with a handshake emoji between them. A spokeswoman for El Salvador´s presidency said she had no further information.
The meeting came hours after Van Hollen said he was denied entry into an high-security El Salvador prison Thursday while he was trying to check on Abrego Garcia’s well-being and push for his release.
The Democratic senator said at a news conference in San Salvador that his car was stopped by soldiers at a checkpoint about two miles from the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, even as they let other cars go on.
‘They stopped us because they are under orders not to allow us to proceed,’ Van Hollen said.
Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador to try and secure the release of Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration has accused of being an MS-13 member
Abrego Garcia was sent to an El Salvador prison by the Trump administration in March despite an immigration court order preventing his deportation
Van Hollen did not provide an update on the status of Abrego Garcia (pictured), whose attorneys are fighting to force the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the US
Abrego Garcia entered the US illegally in 2011. A judge blocked his return to El Salvador in 2019, citing the fact that gangsters were after him, but said he could be deported elsewhere.
In court filings this week, the Trump administration said he was deported to El Salvador in error. The Supreme Court has since ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the US.
Late Thursday, a three-judge panel from the 4th US Circuit Court of Appeals unanimously refused to suspend a judge’s decision to order sworn testimony by Trump administration officials to determine if they complied with the court’s instruction to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.
The Trump administration´s claims that it can’t do anything to free Garcia from an El Salvador prison or return him to the US ‘should be shocking to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear,’ the court said Thursday in a blistering order that ratchets up the escalating conflict between the government’s executive and judicial branches.
Judge J. Harvie Wilkinson III, who was nominated by Republican President Ronald Reagan, said: ‘It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all.’
He added that he and his two colleagues ‘cling to the hope that it is not naïve to believe our good brethren in the Executive Branch perceive the rule of law as vital to the American ethos.’
Trump officials insist Garcia is not an innocent American, as claimed. They say he’s an MS-13 gangster who deserves to be sent back to El Salvador.
Additionally, a 2021 petition for protection from domestic violence filled out by Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez, which was obtained first by DailyMail.com, states that the alleged MS-13 member beat his wife multiple times over the years.
Van Hollen posted a photo of the meeting on X, saying he also called Abrego Garcia’s wife ‘to pass along his message of love’
She told The Post she was ‘acting out of caution after a disagreement with Kilmar … in case things escalated’ after being abused ‘in a previous relationship.’
‘Things did not escalate, and I decided not to follow through with the civil court process. We were able to work through this situation privately as a family, including by going to counseling,’ she added.
‘Our marriage only grew stronger in the years that followed. No one is perfect, and no marriage is perfect.’
Democrats, furious about his deportation, are up in arms, with Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen traveling in an attempt to get answers.
Determined to save Garcia, he flew to El Salvador in an effort to get him out of jail and back in America.
But when he showed up asking for a meeting, he was denied.
He is now being mocked by Republicans and Conservative Americans, including the mother of a woman who was murdered by an illegal migrant.
‘Senator Van Hollen has done more to bring a MS-13 gang member, human trafficker and illegal alien back to Maryland than he has to help keep his American constituents safe or advocate for the victims of these vicious gangs like MS-13.
‘While Senator Van Hollen and the mainstream media peddle a sob story about a brutal MS-13 gang member, Secretary Noem stands with the victims of illegal alien crime, like Maryland mom Rachel Morin.
A2021 petition for protection from domestic violence filled out by Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez (pictured), which was obtained first by DailyMail.com, states that the alleged MS-13 member beat his wife multiple times over the years
‘We hear far too much about the gang members and criminals sob stories and not enough about their victims,’ the Department of Homeland Security said in a post on X.
The efforts by Van Hollen have also been criticized by Morin’s mother Patty who spoke about the lack of any correspondence from state officials when her daughter was murdered.
Speaking on Fox News with anchor Sean Hannity, she said: ‘I’m very angry, I’m outraged. I’m too sad at the moment to show anger at the same time.
‘He did not call our family, he did not give condolences. There was no action [from] the Democratic party in anyway.
‘From Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, anyone here in Maryland, none of the Senators did anything to help search for the murderer of my daughter.’
Rachel Morin’s illegal immigrant killer Victor Martinez-Hernandez was found guilty of first degree murder, first degree rape and kidnapping on Monday – and is now awaiting sentencing.
Abrego Garcia, who is a legal resident, arrived at the notorious supermax prison CECOT in El Salvador March 15 on one of three planes from the US.
He first entered the U.S. in 2011 but was granted permission to stay by a judge in 2019. He later settled down in Maryland and has an American wife and son.
Abrego Garcia (pictured), who is a legal resident, arrived at the notorious supermax prison CECOT in El Salvador March 15 on one of three planes from the US
Democratic Senator from Maryland Chris Van Hollen speaks to the press in Antiguo Cuscatlan, El Salvador. Van Hollen arrived in El Salvador to request the release of Abrego Garcia
The Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia on March 15 after files indicated that he had connections with MS-13, a vicious Salvadorian-American gang.
His wife and lawyer deny his gang affiliation and have sued the administration for improperly removing him from the U.S.
The Trump administration initially said his removal was a mistake. The Supreme Court then ordered the facilitation of his return.
But the Trump administration is standing firm.
In the Oval Office on Monday, Trump and Bukele led a united defense of their actions in the case of Abrego Garcia.
Bukele argued he couldn’t return, saying: ‘How can I return him to the United States?
‘I smuggle him into the United States or what do I do? Of course, I’m not going to do it.
‘The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.’
Trump supported Bukele’s claim and went further, lobbying the El Salvadorian leader to take more migrants and build more prisons hold them.
‘I just asked the president, you know, it’s this massive complex that he built, a jail complex. I said, ‘Can you build some more of them, please?” Trump said.
