Sen. Chris van Hollen, a Maryland Democrat, fancied himself a hero.

So, to Get Trump after his repatriation of a "Maryland man" to his native El Salvador, van Hollen made grand plans to fly down to the Central American nation and like a conquering hero, bring Kilmar Abrego-Garcia back from a Salvadoran prison where Trump deported him last month, to the U.S. like a trophy. He would preen for the cameras. He talk the president of El Salvador into releasing him from the high-security CECOT prison owing to the Trump administration errantly missing the stay of deportation order some judge had granted him in 2019, owing to his upstanding membership in MS-13 which endangered him with the Barrio 18 gang in El Salvador, following his final deportation order. Never mind that the judicial rationale for the stay was obsolete because the gang has since been broken up in El Salvador, though ironically, he may still have things to fear from rival gangs here where blue cities continue to allow gang activity to flourish.

But this was about 'narrative' and van Hollen had a live one. He was all in with the media narrative about Abrego-Garcia being another George Floyd, cut down by the Trump administration, a loving father, a family man, a sheet metal worker, and a union member, just doing what millions of Americans are doing, living their best lives, only to be persecuted by the heartless and dictatorial Trump administration.

Van Hollen got nowhere with the Salvadoran president, who has a country to run, and has already stated that he won't let a terrorist roam free inside his well-run country to endanger his citizens. He's a very popular president there for that.

Then the real embarassment happened.

As van Hollen preened for the cameras in San Salvador, way up in Washington, the Trump White House began releasing its records about the MS-13 gang member who as it turns out was not exactly a model "Maryland man."

BREAKING: New documents released by the DOJ say police VALIDATED that Kilmar Garcia was an ACTIVE MEMBER of the MS-13 gang and admitted to being in our country illegally https://t.co/6hkxsPG4AZ pic.twitter.com/WSVcGbeNzD

— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) April 16, 2025

DOJ releases additional information about “Maryland man” and illegal alien Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

In 2019 the Prince George’s County Police Gang Unit determined Garcia was an MS-13 gang member w/ contacts to other members. He admitted he was in the U.S. illegally after arrest… pic.twitter.com/7aIFn7Pqrm

— Katie Pavlich (@KatiePavlich) April 16, 2025

Here's another detail from Tennessee, the human trafficking part:

Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s Human Trafficking Suspicions Surface Amid Deportation Fight—Why Are Democrats Defending Him? ????????????

New Revelations
On April 16, 2025, The Tennessee Star reported that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran deported to El Salvador in March, was… pic.twitter.com/oH8KaLolYG

— PitunisWorld ???? (@ScMesab) April 17, 2025

There's also this:

Let's tell another story about Kilmar Abrego Garcia. This one has to do with his lawyer, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, and how a 4th Circuit judge (and the entire media) effectively got duped into underplaying the evidence that Abrego-Garcia was in MS-13. pic.twitter.com/dDk7kGaAuD

— Will Chamberlain (@willchamberlain) April 17, 2025

And he has some wife-beating issues -- more than one:

NEW: Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member, had a domestic violence restraining order filed against him by his wife in 2021. She claimed he punched, scratched, tore her shirt, and left her bruised, per court records.

Democrats are attempting to… pic.twitter.com/gMbervDrCp

— RedWave Press (@RedWave_Press) April 16, 2025

As for the saintly wife playing the role of Penelope to her Odysseus, well:

Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of deported El Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia, claims to the media and fundraising campaign that Mr Garcia is an "amazing husband and father" to their three children.

But they do not have three children together. Mr Garcia is the father of the… pic.twitter.com/zhfn4WHDqc

— Andy Ngo (@MrAndyNgo) April 17, 2025

... the money is rolling in.

Now Van Hollen looks like a fool, seeking to bring a foreign gang member who never should have been in the country, back to the country, to resume his lifestyle, not just in his apparent life of crime, but in taking a "good-paying union job" from a legitimate American or green-card holder, and an immigration slot from a legal emigrant patiently waiting in line abroad.

That's his grand cause for heroism? That's the hill he wants to die on? Something tells me this is not going to be the big ticket to celebrity for him that he thought it was going to be.

Trump trolled him at what he thought was his moment of glory, and now he's now a laughingstock.

Image: Screen shot from police booking photo, via Andy Ngo, shared on X