Gov. Sarah Huckabee Sanders (R-AR) slammed Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and other Democrats for advocating the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who is being held in El Salvador, suggesting it is “insane” how these lawmakers are staking their claim on this view.

Sanders joked how Democratic strategist James Carville has gone from the “raging Cajun to the raging crazy” for his advocacy that returning Abrego Garcia to the United States is worth being the “top agenda” for Democrats. She contended that the debate over Abrego Garcia is one between “normal” and “crazy” and that Democrats have gone “so far to the crazy side,” demonstrated by Van Hollen’s recent visit to El Salvador to advocate Abrego Garcia’s release.

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“I think Donald Trump got elected, in large part, because he was saying how insane it was that we weren’t securing our border, but this takes it to a whole new level,” Sanders said on Fox News’s Jesse Watters Primetime. “They’re not just not securing the border, they’re fighting and putting their political careers on the line for MS-13 gang members. That is the definition of crazy. It’s why Donald Trump won reelection, it’s why his numbers are soaring, and it’s why the American people have shifted so far on this issue, because the Democrats are so completely out of touch that they spend more time defending an MS-13 gang member than they do Americans.”

The Arkansas governor also knocked Van Hollen for spending “more time” seeking to help Abrego Garcia than his Maryland constituents and said that the president is correct in continuing to pursue the administration’s deportations. She noted that Arkansas lawmakers have been focused on passing legislation that will increase the penalties that “violent illegals” face and suggested her state is grateful for Trump’s leadership on this matter.

When asked if Van Hollen is aware that Abrego Garcia has been accused of beating his wife or trafficking people across state lines, Sanders suggested it is possible the Maryland senator does not care about this and expressed hope that he would understand how “absurd” it is for him to focus on Abrego Garcia and not U.S. citizens.

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On X, the White House posted a photo of President Donald Trump meeting with Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, who was killed by an illegal immigrant, and contrasted the meeting with a photo of Van Hollen meeting with Abrego Garcia. The post said, “We are not the same.”

We are not the same. pic.twitter.com/yTUoSXmCBa

— The White House (@WhiteHouse) April 18, 2025

Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) similarly criticized some Democrats for hitting “moral rock bottom” over their advocacy for Abrego Garcia’s release from El Salvador.