Secretary of State Marco Rubio snapped back at Democrat Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen on Tuesday after being accused of depriving due process by deporting alleged MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Van Hollen told Rubio that he “regrets” voting in favor of his nomination due to his so-called disregard for due process by deporting Garcia, an alleged gang member accused of beating his wife. Rubio said that even dangerous gang members who Van Hollen decided to have a “margarita with” are not safe from deportation.
“I have to tell you directly in person that I regret voting for you for Secretary of State,” Van Hollen said.
“May I respond? Well first of all, your regret for voting for me means that I’m doing a good job,” Rubio said after the senator finished his remarks.
“That’s just a flippant statement, Mr. Secretary,” Van Hollen said.
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“We deported gang members … including the one that you had a margarita with,” Rubio continued. “And that guy is a human trafficker and that guy is a gangbanger and the evidence is gonna be clear. In the day to come, you’re gonna see who you went to defend.”
Garcia, who illegally entered the U.S. from El Salvador in 2011, was found loitering in a Home Depot parking lot in March 2019, wearing “a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate denominations,” which represents a “good standing” with MS-13, according to documents released by the Department of Justice on April 16. In December 2019, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed Garcia’s challenge to an immigration judge’s finding that he is “a verified member of MS-13.”
Authorities suspected Garcia of human trafficking on a Tennessee highway in 2022 after they discovered he was transporting eight passengers with no apparent luggage. The car belonged to an illegal immigrant named Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, who was sent to prison in 2020 for human smuggling.
The alleged gangbanger’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, sought a domestic violence restraining order against Garcia in 2021, according to court documents released by the Department of Homeland Security. She accused her husband of scratching and punching her eye, ripping her shirt and skirt off and making her bleed by throwing her laptop on the ground.
Despite all of the evidence against Garcia, Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador to visit the alleged MS-13 member and was photographed sitting across from him at a restaurant. The senator confirmed on April 21 that his trip to visit Garcia was funded by U.S. taxpayers.
Democrat Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida, Robert Garcia of California, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon also traveled to El Salvador to visit Garcia and retaliate against President Donald Trump’s administration.
While the administration stated that Garcia’s deportation was a “clerical error,” they maintained that he should remain in El Salvador due to his past criminal activity. The U.S. Supreme Court ruled in an April 10 decision that the administration must “facilitate” the return of Garcia, though Bukele said during an April 14 Oval Office meeting that he will not return him.
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