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Senator vows to go to El Salvador if Trump administration doesn’t return Maryland man (www.baltimoresun.com)

submitted 1 week ago by anon593839@lemmy.world to c/politics@lemmy.world

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[-] PancakesCantKillMe@lemmy.world 179 points 1 week ago

Sen. Chris Van Hollen said Monday morning that he would take matters into his own hands later this week. Van Hollen, a Democrat representing Maryland, said in a statement that he had requested a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, who is visiting the White House on Monday, to discuss Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release from an El Salvador mega-prison. And if Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Prince George’s County father, isn’t back by midweek, Van Hollen said he plans to travel to El Salvador “to check on his condition and discuss his release.”

[-] Quadhammer@lemmy.world 2 points 6 days ago

Weird im reading on the "totally unbiased" tangle newsletter claiming hes being held in a louisiana prison?

[-] kryptonianCodeMonkey@lemmy.world 143 points 1 week ago

I don't think it will amount to much, but it's orders of magnitude more than anyone else is doing about it.

[-] prole 11 points 6 days ago

They need to bring cameras and show us the conditions.

[-] Dragonstaff@leminal.space 4 points 6 days ago

Politics is all about gestures. I applaud everyone who stands up to Trump.

[-] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 50 points 1 week ago

Well we can't even be sure the guy is still alive at this point. Maybe the senator can at least find out more about that.

[-] TheFogan@programming.dev 12 points 6 days ago

Honestly, my money says probably not. It's quite frankly the best explanation for the solid stubornness of the trump admin. They've basically admitted he shouldn't be there. He's ignoring court orders, and now supreme court orders. The only 2 explanations I can come up with for why they don't want him back is.

The conditions of the prison are significantly worse than our imaginations have allowed us to think they are, and they don't want him to confirm that.
Same as 1, but his corpse rather than his words would be the testament to how bad they are.

Any other scenerio to me seems like the political views here would be so overwhelmingly bad that leaving the confirmed innocent man in prison and defying court orders overwhelms any possible reason not to bring him back.

[-] Venus_Ziegenfalle@feddit.org 6 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

Yeah I mean the first one is basically a given but still the way they're handling it seems extra fishy. I really hope we're wrong but let's not forget he was granted de facto asylum in the US because his life in El Salvador would have been threatened by gangs. And now he's locked up with said gangs in a lawless torture camp. It's not exactly looking good.

[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 days ago

Sadly I don't think he will learn much. Bukele knows who is buttering his bread and it ain't this senator.

Whatever Garcia's fate, I very much doubt they'd let this senator through border control.

[-] 4am@lemm.ee 16 points 1 week ago

$10 says they throw him in CECOT while he’s there

[-] JakenVeina@lemm.ee 20 points 6 days ago

Gotta figure he's considered that possibility. Imprisonment of an elected federal official would be distinctly tougher for Trump to just shrug off.

[-] smayonak@lemmy.world 11 points 6 days ago

They get their power from conservative news coverage. If a US senator got locked up in El Salvador and Fox didn't cover it, who is to say he was missing at all? Even if they did cover it they'd point that he was trying to bring back an alleged criminal. And without any oversight of Fox News they'd get away with it. Shameless.

[-] Freshparsnip@lemm.ee 17 points 1 week ago

Good luck to him. Godspeed

[-] malloc@lemmy.world 86 points 1 week ago

Do we even know if the man is still alive? Is there at least representation on his behalf to do wellness check?

His family and friends must be stressed the fuck out.

[-] KillerTofu@lemmy.world 57 points 1 week ago

That’s what I’ve been speculating, he can’t be returned because he’s dead.

[-] BrokenGlepnir@lemmy.world 19 points 1 week ago

You can return a body. I mean unless you can't find it or it's been destroyed. I wonder what they feed the prisoners.

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[-] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 15 points 1 week ago

I don't think he's dead. Trump is using this as a test to see what he can get away with. If people let him do this, he knows he can deport and disappear anyone he wants. And he will.

[-] null_dot@lemmy.dbzer0.com 3 points 6 days ago

Trump just doesn't work that way.

He just doesn't do subtlety or strategy or planning or testing.

[-] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 1 points 6 days ago

That's exactly how he works. He's always pushing the boundaries of what he can get away with. He's done it his whole life.

[-] TheFogan@programming.dev 2 points 6 days ago

I disagree, I think there's plenty of court orders trump could do to test the waters without... well the undeniable fascism that is putting an innocent legal immigrant in a prison forever.

To me there's only 2 reasons not to bring him back... either it's actually impossible (IE he's dead), or he's seen and lived through some conditions that are drastically worse than we know, and they don't want him to talk.

[-] OutlierBlue@lemmy.ca 3 points 6 days ago

But deporting and disappearing innocent people is exactly the test he wants. He even said today that "the homegrowns are next"

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[-] j_co@lemmy.world 20 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

I worked in security in several places similar to El Sal. Ive visited three different terrorism-centered prisons in SA, and in each, once you enter general population, you are essentially lost. My experience is more Brazil and Venezuela. But I cant imagine its any different.

EDIT: I dont mean lost like dead, i mean, its almoat impossible to track someone as there is very little organization.

[-] Gerudo@lemm.ee 9 points 1 week ago

I bet you could walk into a room and yell out "raise your hand if your so and so".

Look, we found them!

[-] j_co@lemmy.world 1 points 4 days ago

yup! why i quit. couldnt handle the zero emotion for human life. i have empathy and a strong conviction for justice on both end. those places are the worst places on earth imo.

[-] Freshparsnip@lemm.ee 19 points 1 week ago

The news told me that Trump confirmed the man is alive

I don't buy it either

[-] j0ester@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

Like Donald said his health is fine.. I don’t believe that bs too.

[-] mkwt@lemmy.world 14 points 1 week ago

The government represented that he was alive in a court filing on Friday or Saturday (I forget which).

[-] Kingofthezyx@lemm.ee 37 points 1 week ago

Ah yes the famously honest and straightforward Trump administration

[-] malloc@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

Which government? USA or El Salvador? I couldn't find anything, just Trump admin saying they will not comply with SCOTUS ruling.

Russia at the very least provides "proof of life" videos of prisoners (ie, WNBA player, Brittney Griner, in 2022)

[-] UnderpantsWeevil@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

Russia provided evidence of Griner because she was being held effectively as a hostage with the intent of exchanging her for Viktor Bout. I'm not sure who Kilmar Garcia would be exchanged for or on whose behalf the exchange would take place. Anyone Trump wants released he can get via executive pardon. And Bukele is holding Garcia as a favor to Trump. The only way I see Garcia leaving is if Trump is removed from office first.

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[-] ryper@lemmy.ca 34 points 1 week ago

This guy may be volunteering to be another person who needs to be returned from El Salvador. The trip could go very badly for him.

[-] prole 5 points 6 days ago

Seems like someone finally willing to put shit on the line to do the right thing. Good for him.

[-] Catoblepas 61 points 1 week ago

Forcing the issue before everyone has become numb to the possibility is the correct move.

[-] CaptDust@sh.itjust.works 49 points 1 week ago

It's going to happen at some point, may as well arrest a sitting congressman now so US can get the ball rolling before republicans replace the voting machines.

[-] anon593839@lemmy.world 47 points 1 week ago

He's probably about as safe as anyone can be. A sitting US senator is among the most powerful people in the world.

Would Trump gladly imprison Van Hollen in a foreign concentration camp? Absolutely.

We're not there yet, and acts of resistance, no matter how small, are how we prevent us from getting there in the first place.

[-] NuXCOM_90Percent@lemmy.zip 22 points 1 week ago

trump led a violent insurrection to lynch his vice president and many other horrific things to congress. He experienced no consequences and has since pardoned his army.

So no, being a politician isn't protection and pretending it is is just self delusion.

[-] TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world 16 points 1 week ago

This is on some prior world view that a sitting Senator would receive the full faith and backing of the US Government. That should anything ill befall them, there would a special kind of hell so furious to pay that world would balk.

How do we think Trump would react if Van Hollen were taken into custody? Would he demand his return? Or would he reward Bukele?

We can't live under previous assumptions we know no longer hold.

[-] prole 1 points 6 days ago* (last edited 6 days ago)

As soon as I read the headline, I was picturing that footage from Jonestown of the visiting Senators getting shot.

[-] anon593839@lemmy.world 27 points 1 week ago

I agree with everything you said. None of us knows what might happen.

But for everyone out there screaming "Do something!" (Myself included), this is undoubtedly something.

The alternative is to do nothing in fear of what Trump might do.

That's what Trump wants. He has the power that he's given. To acquiesce is to grant him power.

That's what every law firm and university that's capitulated to Trump has done, so I'll support Van Hollen's open defiance any day of the week.

[-] Bonesince1997@lemmy.world 9 points 1 week ago

Well said. It's not like anyone around here is going to be sure to make it known when they are wrong. When he goes and he's anything less than captured and put in prison, you won't hear a single peep out of all these people who are so sure today.

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[-] the_dopamine_fiend@lemmy.world 18 points 1 week ago

Let’s not forget the fate of Congressman Leo Ryan.

[-] Fondots@lemmy.world 8 points 1 week ago

That's where my mind went to, a member of Congress taking on themselves to fly to South America to investigate some weird shit going down there involving Americans maybe isn't the best move.

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[-] Xanza@lemm.ee 33 points 1 week ago

I guess at least someone has a little bit of backbone--though I doubt it will do any good whatsoever.

[-] ayyy@sh.itjust.works 29 points 1 week ago

This is what American freedom fighters look like.

[-] SuperCub@sh.itjust.works 18 points 1 week ago* (last edited 1 week ago)

Looks like Van Hollen is taking a trip to Venezuela...

Both the US and El Salvador refuse to return wrongly deported man to the US

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this post was submitted on 14 Apr 2025

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