‘Shameful’: Marylanders Slam Sen. Van Hollen’s Solicitude for Illegal Alien, but Not for Slaying Victims

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., is drawing significant pushback for his visit to El Salvador seeking to free Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an illegal alien deported from the U.S. who stands accused of being a gang member in MS-13.

Abrego Garcia, who entered the U.S. illegally, was deported in March to his home country of El Salvador, where he has since been imprisoned.

Maryland journalist Matthew Foldi pointed out on X that Van Hollen’s X account has not posted about Rachel Morin, a Maryland mother of five who was slain in August 2023 by another Salvadoran illegal immigrant. But Van Hollen has posted about other Americans who have died under controversial circumstances, as demonstrated by his tweet on what was then Twitter in 2019 about Freddie Gray, who died in police custody in Baltimore, and about the 2012 death of Trayvon Martin in Florida. 

The Daily Signal used advanced search on X to see whether Van Hollen had posted commentary about the high-profile case of Laken Riley, a Georgia nursing student who was killed in February 2024 by an illegal alien from Venezuela. His account had not, as of Thursday, posted about Riley or the man who murdered her, José Antonio Ibarra, an illegal alien from Venezuela.

Nor had Maryland’s senior senator posted about Jeremy Poou Caceres, a 2-year-old toddler who was fatally shot in February in Langley Park, Maryland, allegedly by Nilson Granados-Trejo, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador. 

Van Hollen released some statements about Morin’s tragic death when the perpetrator was caught and then convicted. His office did not immediately reply to a request for comment.

Rep. Andy Harris, R-Md., the chairman of the House Freedom Caucus, had tough words for his fellow Marylander. 

“The most striking double standard is that Rachel Morin, who was a constituent of mine, was brutally murdered by an illegal alien from El Salvador, and Chris van Hollen is not spending time on that issue, but he’s taking time to go to El Salvador to bring back a citizen of El Salvador to the United States who had entered the country illegally,” Harris said in a statement to The Daily Signal.

“His actions are shameful,” the Maryland congressman added. 

Rachel Morin was a 37-year-old mother of five who was brutally raped and murdered by an illegal alien from El Salvador. Patty Morin, Rachel’s mother, had some tough words for Van Hollen at a press conference at the White House on Wednesday.

“Why are we not protecting the American citizens? It’s just common sense. Why are we not protecting our children?” Morin told journalists in the White House press briefing room. 

“And to have a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge—or barely acknowledged—my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother and now a grandbaby without a grandmother so that he can use my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that’s not even an American citizen,” she said from behind the White House lectern.

“Why does that person have more right than I do? Or my daughter or my grandchildren? I don’t, I don’t understand this.”

Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, has said he will not be returning Garcia to the United States. In addition to his reputed gang membership, Garcia was accused by his wife in court filings in 2020 and 2021 of domestic violence, which included allegedly punching, bruising, and scratching her. 

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