OAN Staff Brooke Mallory
5:42 PM – Monday, April 21, 2025
Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen admitted on Sunday that taxpayer funds paid for his trip to El Salvador in an attempt to release Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran illegal alien who was deported from the U.S. after being deemed a member of MS-13 by the Department of Justice.
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In a Sunday interview with Shannon Bream on Fox News, Van Hollen (D-Md.) made the admission.
Van Hollen noted that the trip was “officially cleared, you know, [as a] Congressional trip” in response to Bream’s question regarding who paid for the airfare, food, and drinks, among other utilized services.
“So taxpayer dollars?” Bream asked, confirming what most people already knew, but had no proof of.
“Yes, like every other trip,” Van Hollen replied.
Van Hollen further justified his use of public funds for the trip by claiming that he was upholding the Constitution’s right to due process, rather than endorsing one particular illegal alien.
On April 15th, the Democrat senator also falsely stated that Abrego Garcia was an “American citizen” and he pledged to defend his “constituent.” Soon after, Van Hollen’s staff claimed that he accidentally “misspoke.”
Van Hollen referenced a ruling from U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis, who has been labeled an “activist judge” for her efforts to bring back an illegal alien with a history of violence, as proven by his wife’s previous domestic violence restraining order filing.
The outlet also reported that at the time, Vazquez Sura, his wife, had claimed that he beat her up at least twice in 2020, including once in November, when he struck her with his boot. Abrego Garcia’s abuse even left her with a “purple eye” — according to court filings.
Additionally, the judge made her comments before the Department of Justice (DOJ) had released their own findings on the now-deported man.
Van Hollen also repeatedly avoided answering questions on Sunday regarding the DOJ allegations that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is in fact an MS-13 gang member.
Despite CNN’s Dana Bash asking the senator directly if he could say “with absolute certainty” that Abrego Garcia was not a member of the violent gang, Van Hollen could not deny that Abrego Garcia was a MS-13 member, and he admitted that he did not ask him about the gang when they spoke.
Then, in an ironic moment, Hollen quickly switched from the topic of MS-13 by arguing that President Trump has made repeated attempts to divert attention from matters pertaining to due process.
“What Donald Trump is trying to do here is change the subject,” Van Hollen told CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday when Bash asked about Abrego Garcia’s MS-13 ties. “They are trying to litigate on social media what they should be doing in the courts.”
Publicly, the Trump administration has cited a 2019 police report that indicated Abrego Garcia was an active MS-13 member at the time of his original detention, and two immigration judges previously denied the Salvadoran man bond, arguing that “the evidence shows that he is a verified member of MS-13.”
Nonetheless, the Democrat senator seemingly refuses to acknowledge these happenings and instead opts to fabricate claims and denounce the GOP administration, all while stoking outrage among social justice warriors and pro-immigration activists in the U.S.
“I want to emphasize that President Trump and our Attorney General Pam Bondi and the vice president of the United States are lying when they say that Abrego Garcia has been charged with a crime or is part of MS-13,” Van Hollen told reporters in El Salvador last week.
Leadership approval and coordination with foreign affairs committees are required for CODEL tours, or formal congressional visits overseas. Senators must record any gifts or expenses and abide by ethical regulations. The U.S. government typically provides funding for travel through the State Department, Department of Defense (DOD), or Congress.
In a letter to House Oversight Chairman Rep. James Comer last week, Democrat officials like Maxwell Frost of Florida and Robert Garcia of California, similarly requested permission for a Congressional “delegation” to visit El Salvador on another taxpayer-funded trip. They pointed out that the Senate had “already authorized CODEL travel to CECOT.”
“If you also wish to meet with him, you can spend your own money. But I will not approve a single dime of taxpayer funds for use on the excursion you have requested,” he responded back.
However, in spite of Comer’s denial, four Democrat lawmakers—Reps. Garcia and Frost, as well as Democrat Representatives Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon—arrived in El Salvador on Monday to push for Abrego Garcia to be brought back to the U.S.
The Trump administration and politicians from both parties have criticized Democrats’ use of taxpayer-funded travel to promote foreign non-citizens, arguing that the country’s emphasis should be on American families and public safety.
“Look, can the Democrats travel to El Salvador if they want, and is that part, reasonably, of their work? Yes, but what they’re doing is traveling there in order to highlight, ‘We want to bring this illegal immigrant whom two courts have found as an MS-13 member, back to America,’” Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said on his podcast “Verdict” on April 16th. “That’s astonishingly bad policy, and I think astonishingly bad politics,” he added.
Abrego Garcia has consistently argued that he would be vulnerable to attacks by Barrio 18, another violent gang and the biggest rival of MS-13, if he returned back to his native country. He held the rank “Chequeo” and the street name “Chele” within the criminal organization MS-13 — newly released documents revealed, according to the New York Post.
The Salvadoran illegal alien was detained in 2019 alongside two MS-13 ranking members who were wearing gang-affiliated apparel and who had been recognized as members by a confidential informant, according to court documents and a DOJ Gang Field Interview Sheet. He was later designated a “verified member” of the gang and a public safety threat by the aforementioned immigration judges.
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