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Show up for CAMH and rise up for mental health. Register today at sunrisechallenge.ca. That's sunrisechallenge.ca. If it's Friday, Senator Chris Van Hollen is set to speak to reporters about his meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador as the White House takes new steps towards supporting more migrants using wartime powers.
Plus, new details on the deadly school shooting at Florida State University that killed two people and injured six others, including the suspected shooter's ties to the community and the police force. And the U.S. seeming to issue an ultimatum with President Trump and Secretary Rubio warning the U.S. could walk away from efforts to help peacefully end the war in Ukraine if there isn't progress in negotiations soon.
Welcome to Meet the Press. Now I'm Kristen Welker in Washington, where any minute now we are expecting to hear from Senator Chris Van Hollen after he arrives back in the U.S. from El Salvador. And the case of the mistakenly deported Maryland man is now both a legal battle and a political one.
The White House accusing Democrats of prioritizing, quote, the welfare of an illegal alien, MS-13 terrorists and Democrats decrying the Trump administration for ignoring due process and the rule of law. Last night, Maryland Senator Chris Van Hollen shared this photo online of him sitting down with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the El Salvadoran migrant mistakenly deported last month and detained in the notorious mega prison. The White House claims Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang, which his lawyers and family deny. El Salvador's president mocked the meeting in social media posts and the Trump administration insists Abrego Garcia will not be coming home despite a Supreme Court order for the White House to facilitate his return to the U.S.
Prior to their meeting, Senator Van Hollen framed the issue of a matter of due process. What this is about is stripping an individual of his rights to due process. And if you can do this for this individual, the rest of us watch out. What does it say for Americans in terms of protecting the right of due process for this individual, but really for every American when it comes right down to it and every resident of the United States.
Abrego Garcia's wife, who has also been fighting for his release, expressed relief to see her husband alive. It was very overwhelming. The most important thing for me, my children, his mom, his brother, his sibling, was to see him alive. And we saw him alive.
It was very, very overwhelming. Meanwhile, last night, a court of appeals issued a scathing rebuke of the Trump administration's handling of the case. A three-judge panel writing, quote, the government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. And we're now learning of new efforts by the administration to deport more alleged Venezuelan gang members as soon as today under the Alien Enemies Act, despite a Supreme Court order earlier this month that individuals must be given reasonable time to challenge their deportation.
President Trump telling reporters today he would authorize those deportation flights, saying he was elected to get criminals out of the country. I don't know about the group you're talking about, but if they're bad people, I would certainly authorize it. People from mental institutions and insane asylums, gang members, drug dealers pouring into our place. And you know what?
Our people voted for me to get them out. They want them out. They want them out. And we've done a hell of a job.
It comes as the Washington Post is reporting that an assessment by President Trump's own national intelligence council appears to contradict his justification for deportations under the Alien Enemies Act. Joining me now, NBC News chief Capitol Hill correspondent Ryan Nobles, who is at Dulles Airport, where at any moment Senator Van Hollen is set to arrive. Also with me is NBC News White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor and NBC News senior Supreme Court reporter Lawrence Hurley. Thanks to all of you for starting us off.
Ryan, what more can you tell us about the key takeaways from Senator Van Hollen's trip to meet with Mr. Abrego Garcia? Well, the big question right now, Kristen, is all the questions that have not been answered about this trip that Senator Van Hollen took to El Salvador. What he learned about the conditions that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is living under and what the prospects are for bringing him home.
We have no idea how this meeting came together that allowed him the opportunity to sit and meet with Abrego Garcia, get a status on his welfare and then have an opportunity to talk to him. These are all things that Senator Van Hollen has yet to reveal and tells us that he will reveal during a press conference after he gets off this plane that has just landed here at Washington's Dulles Airport. Now, there are a lot of complexities involved with this process and there have been a lot of questions about the way that Van Hollen went down there and what his goals were when he arrived in country. Obviously, there was some sort of communication between Van Hollen and the Salvadorian government that allowed for this meeting to take place with Abrego Garcia.
But we don't know how that came to be, the setting in which the meeting took place, even something as simple as the drinks that were on the table, which certainly appeared to be staged for that photo op that ultimately the president of El Salvador used as an example of what he called a chess match that he and President Trump are playing against Chris Van Hollen. These are all questions that we'll have for the senator when he arrives here in the next few minutes. And talk broadly, Ryan, about how Democrats are framing this as compared to Republicans who politically speaking, see this as a potent issue for them. The big issue that Democrats have about this entire situation is the lack of due process that was afforded Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
It is also not being afforded to the hundreds, maybe thousands of migrants and others that have been shipped away through this mass deportation process. They aren't necessarily arguing that Abrego Garcia is not guilty of all of these things that the Trump administration is accusing him of. What they argue is that he should have his day in court. He should have the opportunity to defend himself against these accusations, to present a case for why he should be in the country illegally before he's just ripped away in the dark of night and then sent to a prison that is a notorious prison where many people talk about the conditions there being not necessarily the most humane.
These are all a part of a broad argument that Democrats are making that if you start to pick away people without that due process, then that begins a slippery slope that could ultimately impact American citizens. And it's something that President Trump has even suggested could impact American citizens as he's openly talked about the idea of sending American citizens away to prisons like the one in El Salvador. All right, Ryan, stand by because we are going to go to you live when Senator Van Hollen does emerge from his plane there at Dulles International Airport. Thank you for starting us off.
Yamiche, let me turn to you over at the White House. Take us inside your conversations with your sources at the White House. They are dug in despite the Supreme Court ordering the administration to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia.
They say facilitate simply means that if the El Salvadoran president were to order that he be returned, they could provide the plane, for example. What are your sources telling you at the White House about how they see this faceoff? Well, President Trump and White House officials have made it very clear that they want this fight and that they believe they are on the right side of this fight when it comes to arguing about Mr. Abrego Garcia because they believe that he is a member of MS-13, that he is really a symbol of all of the sort of criminals that they've been trying to say that they want to fight against and that President Trump was elected to rid this country of.
And they believe that they are in the right when it comes to this. And while they are in some ways still fighting this out in court, in the court of public opinion and in the politics of this, they feel like they are on good ground here and that it was Democrats, really, that are now being put in a position where they might be meeting with, they believe, someone who is part of a gang and someone who is in some ways really a danger to society. I also want to point out for you what we're seeing from the White House when it comes to public messaging. We can put it up for folks.
It's just posted online where the White House posted a headline from The New York Times and they write, fixed it for you. The original headline was Senator meets with wrongly deported Maryland man in El Salvador. Again, reminded that the Trump administration said in court that Abrego Garcia was wrongly deported. But the White House scratched out wrongly, scratched out Maryland man, and instead said Senator meets with MS-13 illegal alien deported in El Salvador who's never coming back.
And on that point of never coming back, we know that the president of El Salvador has told the Department of Homeland Security Secretary that when people go into that mega prison where Mr. Abrego Garcia is being held, that they will never come out. Those were the words of the president of El Salvador and that he has no intention of letting him go. So that is where the White House stands.
They feel like they are on good forward footing and want this Mr. Abrego Garcia home to protect his constitutional rights to due process. And it's also important that people understand this case is not just about one man. It's about protecting the constitutional rights of everybody who resides in the United States of America.
If you deny the constitutional rights of one man, you threaten the constitutional rights and due process for everyone else in America. The Fourth Circuit put it very clearly in its strong opinion yesterday. And I quote, It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all.
The government, in this case the Trump administration, is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order. Further, it claims, in essence, that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from the courthouses still hold dear. They summed up the issue at stake perfectly.
And that's why the Supreme Court, in a nine to nothing decision, ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia. Now, the Trump administration wants to flat out lie about what this case is about. They want to change the subject.
They want to make it about something else. And they are flouting the orders from the federal district court, the Fourth Circuit Court, and the Supreme Court to facilitate his return. That's why I traveled to El Salvador, leaving here on Wednesday. And I want to express my gratitude to members of my family and members of my staff who agreed that we all must be prepared to take risks because of the current risk to our Constitution itself.
In addition to doing a variety of discussions on bilateral issues between the United States and El Salvador, I had two main goals. One was to urge the government of El Salvador not to be complicit in the illegal abduction and detention of Mr. Abrego Garcia and to release him. I made that request directly to the vice president of El Salvador.
The president was out of country at the time. And I previously reported on that conversation. My principal mission was to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. I told his wife, Jennifer, and his family that I would do everything in my power to make that happen.
And last night at about 6:40 p.m., El Salvador time, 8:45 p.m. here on the East Coast, I called Jennifer to tell her that I had met with Kilmar. And I told her what he said to me, which was first and foremost that he missed her and his family. And as he said that, you could see a tear down his cheek.
Now, getting a meeting with Kilmar was not easy. On Wednesday, I met with the vice president of El Salvador and asked if I could meet with him. The answer was no. I asked if I returned the following week whether I could meet with him.
The answer was no. I asked if I could call him on the phone. The answer was no. I asked if his wife Jennifer could call him on the phone.
The answer was no. No to his wife, no to his mother, no to his lawyers. So the following day, which was yesterday, I decided to give it another try by driving to Cicat. Cicat is the notorious prison where Kilmar was taken when he was abducted.
I was accompanied by a lawyer for Kilmar's wife Jennifer and mother Cecilia, Chris Newsom. About three kilometers outside of Cicat, we were pulled over by soldiers. You could see the rest of the traffic was allowed to go by. We were pulled over by soldiers and told that we were not allowed to proceed any farther.
When I asked why, I was told that they had orders not to allow us to go any further. When I asked them if they knew anything about the condition of Mr. Abrego Garcia, they said no. And so much later in the afternoon, I was actually getting ready to catch a plane out of El Salvador back here later yesterday evening.
And all of a sudden, I got word that I would be allowed to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia. And they brought him to the hotel where I was staying. And after that meeting, as I said, I called his wife Jennifer to report on some of the news of that meeting. And now I'm going to report to all of you about our discussion.
When I told him that his wife and family sent their love and were fighting for Kilmar to return home every day, he said that he was worried about all of you. That was his response. How are you dealing with this horrible ordeal and nightmare for the family? He said that thinking of you, members of his family, is what gave him the strength to persevere, to keep going day to day, even under these awful circumstances.
He spoke several times about your five-year-old son who has autism. Five-year-old son who was in the car in Maryland when Kilmar was pulled over by U.S. government agents and handcuffed. His five-year-old son was in the car at that time.
He told me that he was taken to Baltimore first. I assume that was the Baltimore detention center. He asked to make a phone call from there to let people know what had happened to him. But he was denied that opportunity.
He said he was later taken with some others from Baltimore to a detention center in Texas. And at some point thereafter, I don't know whether it was a period of hours or days, he was handcuffed, shackled, and put on a plane along with some others where they couldn't see out of the windows. There was no way to see where they were going in the plane. They didn't know for sure where they were going.
They landed in El Salvador and he was taken to Cicat prison. He was placed in a cell with, if I recall correctly and don't hold me to it, of about 25 other prisoners at Cicat. He said he was not afraid of the other prisoners in his immediate cell, but that he was traumatized by being at Cicat and fearful of many of the prisoners in other cell blocks who called out to him and taunted him in various ways. He told me, and this was yesterday, that eight days ago, so I guess nine days ago from today, he was moved to another detention center in Santa Ana where the conditions are better, but he said despite the better conditions, he still has no access to any news from the outside world and no ability to communicate with anybody in the outside world.
This conversation with me was the first communication he had with anybody outside a prison since he was abducted. He said he felt very sad about being in a prison because he had not committed any crimes. When I asked him what was the one thing he would ask for in addition to his freedom, he said he wanted to talk to his wife, Jennifer. I told him I would work very hard to make that happen.
I told him that in addition to his family, that all of you who are here today were fighting to bring him home. I told him that his brothers and sisters in his union, the sheet metal workers union, were fighting to bring him home. That brought a smile to his face. I told him that millions of Americans understand that what is happening to him is a threat to their own constitutional rights.
I told him about the decisions of the federal courts, the district court, the fourth circuit court, the Supreme Court. And I think that in addition to knowing that his family was fighting for him, all of that gave him strength, the fact that all of you here were fighting for him. I want to say something about the Trump administration's efforts to change the conversation about what this case is about. This case is about upholding constitutional rights for Abrego Garcia and for every American.
The president, President Trump and the Trump administration wants to say that those who are fighting to stand up for our Constitution don't want to fight gang violence. That is an outright lie. That is a big, big lie. I, for one, have been fighting against transnational gang violence, especially MS-13, for over 20 years, probably for longer than Donald Trump ever uttered those words, MS-13.
Over 20 years ago, I worked to establish an anti-gang task force, a regional anti-gang task force, in the Maryland, Washington, D.C., and Virginia area. I did it in a bipartisan way with then-Congressman Frank Wolf and Tom Davis. And we have made substantial progress in this region. We have a long way still to go, but those efforts have resulted in progress.
So I say to the president of the Trump administration, if you want to make claims about Mr. Abrego Garcia and MS-13, you should present them in the court, not over social media, not at press conferences where you just rattle stuff off. Because here's what the federal district court judge said about exactly this issue. This is Judge Zitnis.
So she is the federal district court judge in the District of Maryland where the case first appeared. This is a quote from her opinion. Defendants, and in this case, this is the Trump administration she's referring to, have offered no evidence, have offered no evidence linking Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or any terrorist activity. And vague allegations of gang association alone do not supersede the express protections offered under the INA, unquote.
She emphasizes this point, and I'm quoting, no evidence before the court connects Abrego Garcia to MS-13 or any other criminal organization, unquote. In other words, put up in court or shut up. What the Trump administration did admit in court was that Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been mistakenly detained. They called it a, quote, administrative error, unquote.
An administrative error that has resulted in him being abducted off the streets of about this awful egregious mistake. And now, despite the fact that the Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to fix that error, and it has deprived Mr. Abregor Garcia of his liberty, they are flaunting, the Trump administration and the Trump administration are flaunting the court order to facilitate his return. And the government of El Salvador is complicit in that illegal scheme.
So we need to hold both of them accountable, and we can talk more about how to do that. But as I said at the beginning, this case is not only about one man, as important as that is. It is about protecting fundamental freedoms and the fundamental principle in the Constitution for due process that protects everybody who resides in America. This should not be an issue for Republicans or Democrats.
This is an issue for every American who cares about our Constitution, who cares about personal liberty, who cares about due process, and who cares about what makes America so different, which is adherence to all of those things. This is an American issue. Now I just want to take a moment, I hadn't planned to do this, but as I was landing on the airplane, I got a transcript of some questions President Trump was asked at the White House today about what I would call MargaritaGate. I don't know if you guys have been following this, but President Bukele, you know, after I met with Kilmar, did his tweet showing us at a table with these two glasses.
So here's what happened. When I first sat down with Kilmar, we just had glasses of water on the table. I think maybe some coffee. And as we were talking, one of the government people came over and deposited two other glasses on the table with ice and I don't know if it was salt or sugar around the top, but they looked like margaritas.
And if you look at the one they put in front of Kilmar, it actually had a little less liquid than the one in me, in front of me. To try to make it look, I assume, like he drank out of it. Let me just be very clear. Neither of us touched the drinks that were in front of us.
And if you want to play a little Sherlock Holmes, I'll tell you how you can know that. So if you look at the video or the picture I sent out from the beginning of our meeting, you'll see there are no glasses on the table. So you'll see in later videos, they are on the table. But they made a little mistake for some people here, right?
If you sip out of one of those glasses, some of whatever it was, salt or sugar, would disappear. You would see a gap. There's no gap. Nobody drank any margaritas or sugar water or whatever it is.
But this is a lesson into the lengths that President Bukele will do to deceive people about what's going on. And it also shows the lengths that the Trump administration and the president will go to because when he was asked about a reporter about this, he just went along for the ride. So the White House and the president have been lying about this case from the beginning. They've been trying to change the subject from the beginning.
As I said, and the courts have said, from the Supreme Court to the Fourth Circuit to the district court, what this is about is adhering to the Constitution, to the right of due process. And that's why we say bring Kilmar home so he can be afforded his rights under the Constitution. Senator, why is there a firestorm of deportation? So I told him.
That was the first he heard. You can address the camera. Sure. That's the first he heard is that after I told him that his family was fighting for him, I told him everybody else that was fighting for him, including his union members, but also people from across Maryland, in fact, across the country, who recognize that depriving Kilmar of his constitutional rights is a threat to everybody who resides in America.
He had not heard that. I believe that gave him additional strength. Senator, what did Abrego Garcia say that the officials in El Salvador told him about why he was sent to that prison and how long he would be there? They haven't told him anything about why he was sent.
Or how long he would be there? They didn't tell him anything about that. In fact, I asked the vice president exactly that question. You know, why is he here?
Is he violating any laws in El Salvador? Do you have any proof that he's committed a crime? No. Why is he here?
Because the Trump administration is paying us to keep him here. Did he say what he had heard from other migrants that were also here that were also deported to that prison? Did he say what he had heard from others who were also deported to that prison? He did not know about what was happening in the outside world.
And let me just say, it's Seacott. I want to be really clear. It's Seacott. They don't let any of the prisoners have access to the outside world.
That's one of the conditions, one of the notorious parts of that prison, which, by the way, is a blatant violation of international law, as I said when I was... Senator, is that the first person that left Seacott being referred out immediately? What is there about how he's being there? Is he the first prisoner from Seacott that was outside ever?
Oh, I think I said, I mean, he said the... What he said was that it was his best guess that most of the cells were packed with about 100 people. I asked him why. He said when they take roll call during the day, people have to call out their names from different cells.
As I said, in his cell, I believe there were about 25 people until he was moved. But as I said, while he wasn't fearful of the other prisoners in his own cell, he was fearful about the taunts that he received from other prisoners in Seacott. Senator, what do you think it would take for this president and what next in terms of getting... after this...
Well, the first thing was to accomplish what his mother and family were really desperate to learn, which is that he's alive and heard a thing about him, that for someone who's... he's obviously in a terrible situation. As I said, he's experienced trauma. He said he's sad every day.
But I think this persistence resulted in having this chance to meet with him, to begin to get a little bit of his story. And I think it is the first step to ultimately bringing him home as the Constitution requires. Senator, do you have a sense of his health while being... I did not get that sense.
Look, you never know, but I asked him if he was okay. He said yes. He said he has a blood pressure condition. He has seen a doctor.
So, you know, on a very cursory examination, you appear okay. Now, I will say, just to be clear, there was some negotiation about the terms of this meeting, and he was... we were kind of surrounded by video cameras. So I do want to say that that was the setting he was in.
I should also just say, and I mentioned the fake margarita, they actually wanted to have the meeting by the side of the pool in the hotel. Right? I mean, this is a guy who's been in Seacott. This is a guy who's been detained.
They want to create this appearance that life was just lovely for Kilmar, which, of course, is a big, fat lie. Senator, have you been having any conversations over the last 48 hours on the human being in El Salvador with the Trump administration officials? Was there any indication, maybe, that the administration would be more flexible than what they were saying publicly? I have not.
I did have a meeting with folks at the American embassy there, and I really want to applaud them and every member of the Foreign Service and State Department in El Salvador and everywhere around the world. I co-chair the Foreign Service Caucus, and I have a deep appreciation for what they do. I asked them if they had received any instruction from Washington to help facilitate the release of Kilmar. The answer was no.
I asked them if they had made any attempt to reach out to him. The answer was no. So it's very clear that the President and the Trump administration are blatantly, flagrantly disagreeing with defying the order from the Supreme Court. Senator, can you talk about how the Salvadorian government contacted you to facilitate this meeting?
You mentioned that the terms associated with the meeting were you told not to reveal any details of the meeting until you get back to the United States, and were you at all concerned for their safety in and around this meeting taking place or at any point here in the United States? So I was not concerned about my safety at this meeting, and I will say, obviously, there's a lot of uncertainty when you're approached by soldiers and have your car pulled over to the side of the road and told you can't go any further. But I will say that the soldiers acted professional in their encounter with me. They had their orders.
They implemented their orders. In terms of, I'm sorry, what was the...? The meeting, they reached out to say that it would be the Salvadorian government. Look, in El Salvador, everything happens because Bukele says it could happen.
And if you look at the video he sent out right afterwards with the fake margaritas, you can see that all of that was a setup. So that's why. And as to how I was notified, their message was transmitted to me through the embassy. Senator, do you have any sense of the administration of the agreement that the administration made with El Salvador related to the detention facility, the terms, how much you pay, if the government has any say whatsoever what happens inside the prison?
So I didn't learn that directly from the vice president, but I have learned about the People still may want to hang their hat on the fact that it hasn't been completely adjudicated. As you know, the federal district court judge has ordered depositions of the administration officials. The Trump administration appealed it. That's what the Fourth Circuit decision was all about.
That may well go to the Supreme Court. I don't know if the Trump administration is appealing that. So the question is, is there any point when the president is violating the Constitution of the United States that Republicans will stand up for the Constitution rather than just continue to do the bidding of the Trump administration? When it comes to Congress.
But let me say something on that. Not totally powerless because appropriations need to go through the Congress. And that 15 million dollars, you can be sure we're going to be looking for where it is because that wasn't authorized in previous appropriations. We're operating under a continuing resolution.
Now, they may try to pretend they can transfer that. But there's some indication that they were planning anyway until now to make that as part of the request. And you can be sure that I won't support the use of one penny of taxpayer dollars to keep Abrego Garcia illegally detained in El Salvador. And so as part of that process, yes, Democrats, at least in the Senate, have some sway.
Now, I will say I want to see some of the government. They are making a huge mistake. You know, they want to brand themselves as a country for technology. You know, the president said, you know, Bitcoin is legal tender.
But now what they're branding themselves as, as the place for these huge prisons where people who are illegally deducted, excuse me, illegally abducted, are warehoused. That is not a good look. There are also other things Americans can do with respect to economic pressure on El Salvador. People can stop traveling there.
Actually, tourism is going up. They can stop traveling there. There may be states that decide, you know, they don't want any of their pension funds invested in companies that invest in a place like El Salvador. So there are many things that can be done.
And I just urge the president of El Salvador, the vice president El Salvador to rethink whether they want to become the place that just gets paid off for being complicit in this illegal scheme. When it comes to Congress. But let me say something on that. Not totally powerless because appropriations need to go through the Congress.
And that 15 million dollars, you can be sure we're going to be looking for where it is because that wasn't authorized in previous appropriations. We're operating under a continuing resolution. Now, they may try to pretend they can transfer that. But there's some indication that they were planning anyway until now to make that as part of the request.
And you can be sure that I won't support the use of one penny of taxpayer dollars to keep Abrego Garcia illegally detained in El Salvador. And so as part of that process, yes, Democrats, at least in the Senate, have some sway. Now, I will say I want to see some of the government of El Salvador. They are making a huge mistake.
You know, they want to brand themselves as a country for technology. You know, the president said, you know, Bitcoin is legal tender. But now what they're branding themselves as, as the place for these huge prisons where people who are illegally deducted, excuse me, illegally abducted, are warehoused. That is not a good look.
There are also other things Americans can do with respect to economic pressure on El Salvador. People can stop traveling there. Actually, tourism's been going up. They can stop traveling there.
There may be states that decide, you know, they don't want any of their pension funds invested in companies that invest in a place like El Salvador. So there are many things that can be done. And I just urge the president of El Salvador, the vice president of El Salvador, to rethink whether they want to become the place that just gets paid off for being complicit in this illegal scheme. Why did the government reverse itself on allowing you to meet with Mr.
Obregó Garcia after telling you no? And also, do you have a sense of why the government transferred Mr. Obregó Garcia from SICA to this other prison in San Salvador? Well, I think the reason they relented is pretty clear.
They were feeling the pressure. I mean, they were feeling the pressure because while I was in El Salvador, we had two major press conferences that included the local press, who reported on this. And I think that they decided that it was not a good look to continue to detain El Abrego Garcia without anybody having access to him. There's no other explanation for the fact that they said no, no, no, no, no, and then prevented us from going to the prison.
So that's why. I'm sorry, what was the second part of your question? The second part, why and what was the problem? Why did they transfer Mr.
Obregó Garcia into SICA to this other prison in San Salvador? Well, I mean, number one, I will say my main request was to meet with him. As I said, he's no longer at SICA. So he's at a different prison, which is pretty far outside of San Salvador.
But in addition to that, I didn't even know that. I mean, so we all thought he was at SICA. I mean, until I met with him. That's why I tried to go to SICA.
So I think that's why they brought him. He wasn't brought in to see me. Senator, last week you advocated party taking on deportations like this. Do you think the White House was involved at all in facilitating this meeting?
I do not. I do not. Do you think any of your colleagues who say that they plan to go down now that the president has basically shut the door, let you meet with him, but he says he's not going to return? Have you spoken to them and hope to accomplish going forward?
So I told the vice president of El Salvador that I may be the first senator member of Congress to be in El Salvador, to come down to El Salvador, but I won't be the last one. And there are others coming. I've got to give them a call after this meeting to brief them on my trip. But this goes back to the fact that El Salvador is making a big mistake.
The president of El Salvador is making a big mistake in being complicit in this illegal scheme. How long did you meet for? How long did you meet for? We met for over half an hour.
There was no. How can you prevent future illegal deportations like this? Exactly. Do you think that El Salvador and the parties that you're mentioning that is part of what facilitated this?
I think it could have been a factor because they are in blatant violation of that requirement, that international law requirement. Not only in this case, but actually in all of these cases, because I said the policy at that prison, SICOT, is to have no communication, not with your lawyer, not with your family, with nobody. That is a violation of international law. And as I mentioned, El Salvador is a signatory to that.
Thank you all very much for being here. You've been watching Senator Chris Van Hollen talking about his trip to El Salvador, where he did meet with Kilmer Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who is being held in El Salvadoran prison. He was transferred from SICOT, which is the prison which is notorious for how it treats its inmates, to a prison in Santa Ana. You heard the senator say that the Salvadoran government clearly feeling the pressure.
He believes that's why they moved him. Talk about the fact that he had requested entrance to the prison multiple times. He was denied entry. And then finally, he was close to leaving.
He says that's when the Salvadoran government contacted him and said that they could, in fact, set up a meeting with Mr. Abrego Garcia, who did say that he was doing well, had been seen by a doctor and that the senator was able to convey to him really for the first time. The discussion and debate swirling here in the United States about whether he should be returned to the United States for due process. Of course, the Trump administration says he is an MS-13 gang member, something that Mr.
Abrego Garcia, his attorneys and his family all deny. Joining me now on set to discuss this further is Shelby Talcott, White House correspondent for Semaphore. Simone Sanders Townsend, former senior advisor to Vice President Harris and co-host of The Weekend on MSNBC and Republican strategist Rick Tyler. Thanks to all of you for being here.
Shelby, boy, there is a lot to unpack here. And one of the things that stood out to me is something that Senator Van Hollen said at the top. It's the crux of the argument that he is making that I think had been getting a little bit lost until this moment when he addressed reporters. He said, it's important that people understand this case is not just about one man.
It's about protecting the constitutional rights of everybody who resides in the United States of America. What are your key takeaways from what we just heard? Well, I think there's a lot of key takeaways, but really it is this feels like it has become sort of a fight over public opinion over this case. But as he said, over all of these sorts of deportations and you've heard the White House, the White House is really embracing this argument in this situation.
They're arguing this man was here illegally. They maintain that he was an MS-13 member. They say he's not coming back. They loved what Bukele did with the margaritas, as you heard during that press conference.
They're leaning into this because I think on the campaign trail, immigration was such a big boost for the president. And really now, immigration compared to a lot of these other issues like the economy, it's sort of a distraction. And so they're ready to fight Thank you so much for joining us, Ryan. We really appreciate it.
And Shelby, Simone, and Rick, thank you for being here. We will be back Monday with more Meet the Press Now. And if it's Sunday, it's Meet the Press on your local NBC News station. I'll be speaking with Senator Chris Van Hollen, who you just heard from there, fresh off his trip from El Salvador.
Plus Republican Senator John Kennedy. You do not want to miss it. We want to wish everyone a happy Easter who celebrates. The news continues with Tom Costello in for Hallie Jackson right now.
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