Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen is facing fierce backlash after publicly celebrating a federal judges decision to throw out a criminal case against alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal alien previously ordered removed from the United States.
According to the Gateway Pundit, a federal grand jury in Tennessee had indicted Abrego Garcia on one count of conspiracy to transport aliens and one count of unlawful transportation of illegal aliens after authorities said he was involved in trafficking illegal migrants across the country. The indictment alleged that Abrego Garcia and co-conspirators from El Salvador, Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States were engaged in moving illegal aliens from 2016 through 2025, underscoring the long-running nature of the alleged scheme.
On Friday, U.S. District Judge Waverly Crenshaw, an Obama appointee, dismissed the indictment in its entirety, siding with Abrego Garcias claim that he was the target of vindictive and selective prosecution in violation of the Fifth Amendments Due Process Clause. Judge Crenshaw not only tossed both counts but also sharply criticized the Trump Administration for pursuing the case, prompting the Trump Department of Justice to move swiftly to appeal his ruling.
Rather than expressing concern over the collapse of a human trafficking prosecution involving an alleged MS-13 operative, Van Hollen hailed the decision as a victory for civil liberties. Today, a federal judge determined what weve known all along, the Trump admin was engaged in a vindictive prosecution against Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Van Hollen said, adding, This is a win for all our rights & the Constitution.
Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran national, had been living illegally in Maryland before an immigration judge ordered him removed in 2019 amid allegations of his membership in the notoriously violent MS-13 gang. Despite this, Van Hollen made Abrego Garcia a political cause, casting him as a victim of Trump-era immigration enforcement rather than as a public-safety threat.
Last year, the Maryland Democrat flew to El Salvador at taxpayer expense to stage a photo-op with Abrego Garcia, a man described as a wife beater and alleged MS-13 gang member. The trip, which critics blasted as a political stunt, saw Van Hollen openly lobbying to bring the deported alien back into the United States.
The Senators conduct did not stop there, as he was photographed socializing and even drinking with Abrego Garcia. Van Hollen even sipped margaritas with Garcia, a detail that has fueled outrage among voters who expect their elected officials to stand with law-abiding citizens, not with accused gang members.
After Van Hollen publicly praised Judge Crenshaws ruling, social media users and conservative commentators excoriated him for siding with an alleged MS-13 trafficker over the Trump Administrations efforts to enforce immigration law. As the Trump DOJ presses its appeal, the episode highlights a stark divide: conservatives demanding border security and accountability, and a Democrat Senator applauding a judicial rebuke of a prosecution aimed at an illegal alien tied to one of the worlds most violent gangs.
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