Latest news with #ChrisVanHollen
CBS News
26-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Maryland congressman to share update about trip to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador
Maryland congressman to provide update from El Salvador during trip to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia Maryland congressman to provide update from El Salvador during trip to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia Maryland congressman to provide update from El Salvador during trip to see Kilmar Abrego Garcia Maryland Rep. Glenn Ivey will share an update Monday evening from El Salvador after he traveled to the country to check on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who was mistakenly deported from the U.S. in March. Ivey left from Dulles International Airport on Friday, May 23. His trip comes one month after Sen. Chris Van Hollen met with Abrego Garcia in El Salvador. The congressman is expected to share an update from El Salvador around 7:30 p.m. Abrego Garcia is still in custody in El Salvador despite federal and Supreme Court orders that directed the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the U.S. Kilmar Abrego Garcia deported from U.S. Abrego Garcia lived in Maryland for 14 years after he entered the country without authorization. Immigration officials detained him on March 12. Three days later, he was sent to El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, described as a maximum-security facility. His deportation violated a 2019 court ruling that blocked his removal. That ruling was designed to shield him from potential gang violence in his home country. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) said Abrego Garcia's deportation was the result of an "administrative error." Maryland lawmakers get involved in Abrego Garcia's case State lawmakers have criticized the handling of Abrego Garcia's case, arguing it violates due process. "It's clear that the government made a mistake," Ivey wrote on social media in April. "In fact, they admitted it. So he's being held illegally. The government has the authority to bring him back." The Trump administration has labeled Abrego Garcia as a member of the MS-13 gang as court proceedings continue to play out. His attorneys and relatives have denied those allegations, pointing to his lack of criminal convictions. "At this point, I'm just assuming that [the Trump administration is] scared to bring him back because they'll have to go to court and explain all of the false statements that they've apparently made about him," Ivey said in April. Where does Abrego Garcia's case stand? Days before Abrego Garcia met with Sen. Van Hollen, he was moved from the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, to a lower security facility where he has his own room. In May, the Trump administration invoked the state secrets privilege, enabling officials to withhold information from Abrego Garcia's attorneys and a federal judge in Maryland. In response, Abrego Garcia's attorneys accused the administration of stonewalling court orders to facilitate his return to the United States. In a federal court hearing on May 15, District Judge Paula Xinis expressed frustration with the government's lack of transparency in the case, stating that the administration had not provided enough information to justify its use of the state secrets privilege.
CBS News
26-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Classes resume at National Fire Academy in Maryland after federal funding freeze
Classes at the National Fire Academy in Maryland resumed after a pause due to federal funding freezes and staffing cuts, according to a group of state lawmakers. The training academy, which serves first responders across the nation, halted classes in early March after the Trump administration called for an evaluation of programs and spending. What is the National Fire Academy? The National Fire Academy opened in 1973 to address an increase in fatal fires across the nation. Firefighters and other first responders travel to the academy in Emmisburg, Maryland, to take advantage of free training programs funded by the federal government. The academy was about to welcome a new class of officers in March when instructors were directed to cancel travel. "It's not a 'nice to have.' It is the one avenue we have to bring people from all over the country to learn from and with each other," former Maryland fire chief March Bashoor said at the time. "If we want to continue to have one of the premier fire services in the world, we need to have the National Fire Academy." National Fire Academy trainings resume Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen and Rep. April McClain Delaney announced on May 22 that training at the National Fire Academy would restart immediately. After the announcement of the pause in trainings, several Maryland lawmakers, including Sen. Angela Alsobrooks, penned a letter demanding answers about the pause in classes from the Trump administration. Though classes will restart, Rep. Delaney said the group did not receive a response to their letter. "The Trump Administration's decision to abruptly cancel these classes made no sense – and what's more, it risked significant harm to our communities and those who protect them," Sen. Van Hollen said.
CBS News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- CBS News
Maryland congressman Glenn Ivey travels to El Salvador to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia after deportation
Another Maryland lawmaker is heading to El Salvador to check on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who was mistakenly deported from the U.S. despite a court order that should have blocked his removal. Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey is set to leave for El Salvador Friday evening from Dulles International Airport. His trip comes one month after Sen. Chris Van Hollen visited El Salvador and met with Abrego Garcia. "It's clear that the government made a mistake," Ivey said in an April social media post. "In fact, they admitted it. So he's being held illegally. The government has the authority to bring him back." Abrego Garcia remains in custody in El Salvador despite federal and Supreme Court orders directing the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the U.S. Kilmar Abrego Garcia deported to Salvadoran prison Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally and lived in Maryland for 14 years before he was detained by immigration agents on March 12. Three days later, he was deported to the Terrorism Confinement Center, a supermax prison in El Salvador. Abrego Garcia was deported despite a court order that prohibited his removal. The withholding of the removal order was granted to him in 2019. The order is meant to protect people from being deported to countries where they could face threats, in his case, from local gangs. U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials said Abrego Garcia's deportation was due to an "administrative error." Abrego Garcia's deportation sparks legal battle Maryland leaders and legal experts have raised concerns about the right to due process in Abrego Garcia's case. As the case plays out in court, the Trump administration has repeatedly alleged that Abrego Garcia is affiliated with the transnational MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia's legal team and his family have argued that these claims are false, citing his clean criminal record in the U.S. and in El Salvador. "At this point, I'm just assuming that [the Trump administration is] scared to bring him back because they'll have to go to court and explain all of the false statements that they've apparently made about him," Ivey said in April. Earlier in May, the Trump administration invoked the state secrets privilege, allowing federal officials to withhold information about the case. Abrego Garcia's attorneys have since accused the government of failing to comply with court orders about his return. Abrego Garcia meets with Sen. Van Hollen In April, Van Hollen visited El Salvador to check on Abrego Garcia's well-being. By then, Abrego Garcia had been transferred from the supermax prison to an administrative building where he has his own room with a bed, rather than a prison cell, court documents show. Van Hollen met Abrego Garcia at a hotel in El Salvador after the senator was initially denied meetings by Salvadoran leaders. After returning to the U.S., Van Hollen accused U.S. and Salvadoran government leaders of spreading misinformation about Abrego Garcia's case. He said U.S. leaders have been flooding social media with misinformation in an effort to focus the conversation on gang violence rather than due process. The senator also accused the Salvadoran government of being complicit in violating U.S. Constitutional rights by keeping Abrego Garcia in custody and joining in the effort to spread misinformation.
Free Malaysia Today
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Free Malaysia Today
Rubio vows to keep stripping student visas in heated senate return
Secretary of state Marco Rubio told a senate committee in Washington he has revoked thousands of visas since taking office in January. (AP pic) WASHINGTON : US secretary of state Marco Rubio vowed Tuesday to keep stripping visas from students in a fiery showdown with rival Democrats who accused him of trampling on free speech of Israel critics. Rubio, once a well-liked senator who was unanimously confirmed by his peers, returned for the first time in his new role to the senate in a sharply different atmosphere, clashing bitterly with Democrats. President Donald Trump's top diplomat has proudly boasted of taking away visas from foreigners under an obscure law that allows removal for activities deemed counter to US foreign policy interests. Rubio estimated he has revoked 'thousands' of visas since taking office in January. He had given a figure of at least 300 visas in March. 'It's very simple. A visa is not a right – it's a privilege,' Rubio told the senate foreign relations committee. 'We're going to do more. There are more coming. We're going to continue to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests and are disrupting our higher education facilities,' he said. Democratic senator Chris Van Hollen accused Rubio of violating US constitutional protections both of free speech and due process. 'Give me a break, Mr Secretary. You know as well as I do this isn't about national security. It's about punishing free speech,' Van Hollen said. Rubio responded that he was targeting students who came to 'lead campus crusades, to take over libraries and try to burn down buildings.' Van Hollen called his defence 'pathetic' and raised the case of Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish doctoral student at Tufts University who had written an opinion piece in a student newspaper criticising the school's position on Gaza. She was arrested on a street by masked agents. A judge recently ordered her release. 'Your own department found zero links to terrorism, no anti-semitic statements, but you still yanked her visa and shipped her off to detention in Louisiana,' Van Hollen said. 'I feel so much safer after locking up people like Ms Ozturk,' Van Hollen told Rubio sarcastically. Van Hollen invoked the famous rebuke to senator Joseph McCarthy over his 1950s witch hunt for communists in the US government: 'Have you no decency?' 'Full MAGA lobotomy' Rubio has quickly become a favourite of Trump and his base, some of which protested when he was nominated that he was part of the traditional Republican establishment. The unanimous confirmation for Rubio was highly unusual in a fiercely partisan era in Washington since the rise of Trump and his 'Make America Great Again' movement. Van Hollen, posting his exchange with Rubio on social media, wrote that his former colleague 'has had a full MAGA lobotomy.' Rubio hit back at Van Hollen during the hearing: 'Your regret for voting for me confirms I'm doing a good job.' Rubio, the first Hispanic secretary of state, has also championed Trump's signature policy of mass deportation, including reaching an agreement with El Salvador to incarcerate migrants in a top-security prison. Van Hollen travelled to El Salavdor to meet a man living in his state of Maryland who was deported in defiance of a judge's order. Ownership on aid Rubio has also presided over the evisceration of the US Agency for International Development, which he supported as a senator. Asked by another Democrat if he let billionaire Elon Musk's Department of Government Efficiency take the lead, Rubio rebutted: 'DOGE team didn't do anything. I did it. I was the one who made the decisions.' He rejected an ongoing study by a researcher at Boston University's School of Public Health which has found that nearly 43,000 adults and 90,000 children have died so far due to the freeze in US funding. 'That's fake,' Rubio said. 'That would mean that nobody else in the world is doing anything – we're taking care of the entire planet.'
Fox News
22-05-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
A Tale Of Two Administrations
As seen on Gutfeld!, Greg mocks Chris Van Hollen after he gets destroyed by Marco Rubio in a Senate hearing. Plus, Greg goes on to contrast the current gladiators of the Trump administration with the incompetent buffoons in the Biden administration. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit
