FOR DEMOCRATS, HOW TO FRAME THE ABREGO GARCIA CASE? A number of perceptive observers have detected some internal tension in the Democrats’ handling of the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case. At first the party, and its affiliated groups and media allies, portrayed Abrego Garcia as a great husband and father who had been cruelly abducted by the Trump deportation machine. Then came revelations that Abrego Garcia was credibly accused of membership in the violent transnational gang MS-13, that his wife had filed a domestic violence complaint seeking protection against him, and that he was involved in an odd traffic stop in Tennessee in which authorities suspected he was involved in transporting illegal migrants.
Faced with all that, some in the Democratic world began to argue that the Abrego Garcia controversy wasn’t about any one man. It was instead about the Constitution and the right of all Americans not to be deprived of due process and whisked out of their country to a foreign gulag.
So which is it? Is the Abrego Garcia matter about Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the alleged gang member, wife-beater, and human trafficker? Or is it about the Constitution and all of us? Politically, it would seem best for Democrats to stress the latter. But they’re having a hard time doing it.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) got the beat on the rest of his fellow Democrats by flying to El Salvador with no guarantee he would get to see Abrego Garcia. Van Hollen’s strategy paid off late Thursday when authorities allowed him to spend an hour with Abrego Garcia. Van Hollen announced his big score in a tweet showing a photo of himself sitting at a cafe table with Abrego Garcia, leaning toward Abrego Garcia and appearing to look deep into his eyes. “I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar,” Van Hollen wrote. “Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love.”
Speaking with reporters after his return to Washington on Friday, Van Hollen appeared to choke up a little when he described passing along the message of love to Jennifer. “I told her what he said to me,” Van Hollen said, “that he missed her and his family. As he said that, you could see a tear.” With that, some in the Democratic world perhaps shed a tear of their own. “When I told him that his wife and family sent their love and were fighting for Kilmar to return home every day, he said he was worried about all of you. He said that thinking of you, members of his family, is what gave him the strength to persevere,” Van Hollen said.
Friday also saw the appearance of more information about Abrego Garcia’s past, specifically previously unseen documents about the 2022 Tennessee traffic stop. “On December 1, 2022, subject was observed speeding and unable to maintain its lane and was subsequently pulled over,” the documents said. “Upon approach to the vehicle, encountering officer noted that there were eight other individuals in the vehicle with the subject, who was identified as the driver. Subject stated he was driving ‘three days ago’ from Houston, TX to Temple Hills, MD to bring in people to perform construction work. There was no luggage in the vehicle, leading the encountering officer to suspect this was a human trafficking incident. All the passengers gave the same home address as the subject’s home address. During the interview, subject pretended to speak less English than he was capable of and attempted to put encountering officer off-track by responding to questions with questions.”
Something odd was going on there. This was at the height of the Biden rush of illegal border crossers into the United States, and it is not clear whether those in the car with Abrego Garcia were in the country legally or not. There is still more to find out.
What did Van Hollen have to say about that? Here’s the thing about Van Hollen’s news conference late Friday afternoon. Nobody asked him anything about the basics of Abrego Garcia’s resume — the gang accusation, the domestic issue, the Tennessee stop. Here Van Hollen was, having just had the first chance of anyone to talk to Abrego Garcia, and no journalist asked him a single question about those issues. Of course, Van Hollen might not have questioned Abrego Garcia about them either, but it would be good to know that.
Despite the fact that Abrego Garcia entered the country illegally, was ruled deportable by an immigration court, and was credibly accused of membership in a violent transnational gang, Van Hollen did his best to convince all Americans that Abrego Garcia’s fate could befall them, too, in the Age of Trump. Over and over, Van Hollen called the case an “illegal abduction.” “This case is not just about one man,” he said, catching up to his party’s talking points. “It’s about protecting the constitutional rights of everybody who resides in the United States of America. … This case is about upholding constitutional rights for Kilmar Abrego Garcia and every American.”
Two final notes. One, Van Hollen revealed that Abrego Garcia is no longer being held at the Salvadoran “megaprison” known as CECOT. The prison and the alleged brutality of its staff have been a regular feature of coverage of the Abrego Garcia story. Now he is somewhere else and, at least at first glance, appears to be healthy.
The other note is that when Salvadoran officials took some photos of Abrego Garcia meeting Van Hollen, the pictures included a glimpse of Abrego Garcia’s left hand. He appeared to have tattoos across his knuckles. President Donald Trump immediately characterized them as MS-13 tattoos, and Abrego Garcia’s knuckles became internet sensations. Look for plenty of pushback, and in the end, we will know more about gang tattoos than we did before.