Dem Senator’s Staff Says He Misspoke When He Called Deported Illegal Migrant A US ‘Citizen’

Maryland Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s staff says he misspoke when referring to a deported illegal migrant as a United States citizen.

Van Hollen called Kilmar Abrego Garcia — an illegal migrant and alleged MS-13 gang member deported to his home country of El Salvador — an American citizen when declaring that he would travel to the Central American country to try and check on his status. The senior Maryland senator has vehemently objected to the Trump administration’s removal of Abrego Garcia and has referred to his arrest as an “abduction.”

“My hope is to visit Kilmar and check on his wellbeing and to hold constructive conversations with government officials around his release,” Van Hollen said Tuesday, according to NBC News. The senator, who is pushing for a meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, believes the Central American leader “will reconsider when he understands the full story of this illegal detention.”

“I don’t think he wants to essentially be the president who’s kidnapped the United States citizen,” Van Hollen told reporters, referring to Abrego Garcia’s detention in El Salvador.

However, Abrego Garcia never had legal status while living in the United States, much less American citizenship.

After illegally crossing into the U.S. in 2011, Abrego Garcia eventually settled in Maryland and married an American citizen. In 2019, the Salvadoran national was arrested by the Prince George’s County Police Department and accused by an informant of having MS-13 gang member ties. Abrego Garcia was given a deportation order, but was later successful in obtaining a withholding of removal, a benefit similar to asylum that barred his deportation to El Salvador and allowed him to work in the U.S.