Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., denies ‘margarita-gate’ photo-op after El Salvador trip

Senator Chris van Hollen, D-MD.. He says the margarita were false. The indignation, he says, is really.

Return from a highly published trip to El Salvador to meet with deported illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Van Hollen, addressed reporters on Thursday after landing at the Dulles International Airport in Virginia. He tried to set a record directly on what was now called “Margarita-Gate”, a viral photo posted by Salvadorant President Nayib Bukela, and seemed to show the Senator and Garcia sitting casually at a table with two drinks with salt borders.

“Let me be very clear,” Van Hollen said. “None of us touched the drinks that were ahead. And if you want to play a little Sherlock Holmes, I’ll tell you how you can know.

“No one drank any margarita or sugar water or whatever it is.”

Kilmar Abrego Garcia suspected of trading people in a report received by Fox News

Van Hollen claimed that the glasses were set after the meeting began as an styled photo-oP, adding that earlier shots show a table without drinks. Van Hollen also accused President El Salvador Nayib Bukele and Trump administration trying to distract from what he described as a constitutional crisis.

“This is a lesson about the length that Bukela’s president will make to cheat on people,” Van Hollen said. “And it also shows the lengths that Trump’s administration will go to and the president, because when the journalist asked him about it, he just went for a ride.”

Trump had his own, posting on a true social Friday, “Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland seemed like a fool yesterday that stood in El Salvador, asking the attention of fake news, or anyone. Grandstander !!!”

The countercring comes from the Garcia case, a 29-year-old Salvadorant national deported from Maryland last month and placed in a infamous prison in the country.

A photo of the White House sharply shows where the parties stand about immigration in the middle of the deportation of Abrega Garcia

Federal officials called the deportation “administrative error” in court. Van Hollen and other Democrats claimed that it violated Garcia’s constitutional right to procedure.

But Trump’s administration pushed back back, pointing to Garcia’s alleged family abuse, band relationships and suspicion of participating in people’s trade.

Report on Homeland Security Investigation 2022 identified Garcia as a Member MS-13 and suspicious traders of people. Submitting the domestic violence of 2021, written by his wife Jennifer Vasquez, claimed: “I have more photos/videos of how he can be violent and all the bruises he [has] He left me. “

Despite these reports, Van Hollen insists that no evidence has been presented in court and that removal is illegal. He cited the judgments of the Federal District Court and the US Supreme Court ordering the return of Garcia.

“The Government in this case, Trump’s administration, argues the right to remove the residents of this country in foreign prisons without seeing procedures,” Van Hollen said, quoting the recent decision of the fourth round. “It is the basis of our constitutional order.”

He added that Judge Paul Xinis, a federal judge who first examined the case, found that the administration “did not offer evidence that links Abrego Garcia to the MS-13 or any terrorist activity.”

Trump, however, fiercely defended the deportation. In a post about the truth of Social and X, he said Democrats demand the return of someone with relationships with bands and the history of violence, while the photo allegedly portrayed Garcia’s fist with the Bandi MS-13 signs tattooed on his wrists.

In his post, President Trump He wrote: “This is a man’s hand that Democrats think he should return to the United States, because he is such a” fine and innocent person “. They said he was not a MS-13 member, although the MS-13 tattooed on his joints, and two of the very appreciated courts revealed that MS-13 Member of MS-13, he beaten his wife, etc.

Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador this week after the Salvadorans’ government initially denied access to Garcia. After covering the press, he said, the officers agreed a meeting at the hotel, which was filmed. He said that Salvadoran soldiers had previously prevented him from approaching the prison and was surprised by the Last-minute permission to meet.

He also found that the US had committed $ 15 million El Salvador to support detention operations and said more than four million dollars had already been paid. Van Hollen claimed that this funding was unauthorized and it was advocated that he would oppose the future approved means.

“I will not support the use of a series of taxpayers so that Abrego Garcia would be illegally detained in El Salvador,” he said.

Critics, including Republicans and Trump’s allies, questioned why Van Hollen would travel abroad to advocate someone with alleged bands and a domestic abuse record, while silent on victims like Rachel Morin, a woman from Maryland killed in 2023 by an illegal immigrant.

White house He drew a sharp contrast, posting the lateral photos of Trump’s meeting with Morin’s mother and Van Holen, meeting Abre Garcia. Description: “We are not the same.”

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Asked about comparison, Van Hollen said that his heart crashed for Morin’s family, but defended his actions based on the Constitution.

“The reason we have the courts is to punish guilt, but also to ensure that those who have not committed crimes have not been found guilty and arbitrarily detained,” he said.

Fox News’ Rachel Wolf, David Spunt, Greg Norman, Greg Wehner and Bill Mears contributed to this report.