Chris Van Hollen condemns ‘unjust situation’ and says vice-president blocked access to wrongly deported man***
Maryland’s Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen says the government of El Salvador has denied his request to visit Kilmar Ábrego García, his constituent who was wrongly deported to the Central American country last month.
Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday with the intention of meeting Ábrego García at the Terrorism Confinement Center (Cecot), where US authorities have said that the Maryland resident is being held along with others deported at Donald Trump’s orders.
The senator’s visit came days after Trump and El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, refused to take steps to return Ábrego García to the United States, even though the US supreme court last week said the administration must “facilitate” his return.
Why would he expect any different; that ‘prison’ has never permitted any visitors, gifts, mail, nor has it ever released a live prisoner.
US Senators generally get what they want with these types of things, especially when they visit in person. They’re direct representatives of the Legislative Branch of the US government, and have as much, if not more control than the Executive Branch (when they are actually doing their job).
Telling a Senator no, in person, generally isn’t something you do unless you don’t have another choice. Like if the person they want to talk to is actually dead but you have been saying they’re alive.
I mean, I don’t totally disagree here, but I’m not sure what kind of clout that’s supposed to hold under team Trump.
Like, understanding this isn’t a perfect analogy, if I were working in an American prison holding a Russian prisoner and a Putin-aligned legislator wanted to see that prisoner I would take great pleasure in telling them to fuck off if I had that power.
The difference would be that presumably we’d be holding that prisoner despite Russians wishes not because of them. We paid for them (are paying?) to hold this guy. He’s not their prisoner, he’s ours. The whole situation is fucked but that analogy isn’t quite accurate.
I made it on the fly, but the point is that the clout goes away when 1) you’re not my senator, 2) you’re not a legislator in my country and 3) you go against everything I stand for - what kind of clout am I supposed to feel from someone like that?