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Ross O'Keefe


NextImg:Van Hollen wants Americans to pressure El Salvador by redirecting tourism: ‘Vote with your feet’ - Washington Examiner

Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) believes Americans should redirect their tourism dollars away from El Salvador in the aftermath of his visit with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a deported illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 member imprisoned at the country’s Terrorism Confinement Center.

The Maryland senator suggested Costa Rica as a better vacation destination, and said picking a different country could put economic pressure on El Salvador to release Abrego Garcia.

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“Vote with your feet,” Van Hollen said at the Semafor World Economy Summit on Wednesday. “Costa Rica is a beautiful place. You don’t have to go to El Salvador.”

Van Hollen was the first United States elected official to meet with Abrego Garcia after he was deported to El Salvador and imprisoned at CECOT. Democrats decried what they viewed as lack of due process for him. The Maryland senator wanted the Trump administration to return him home, but it refused.

Van Hollen said the White House is paying El Salvador $15 million to hold deportees like Abrego, “a fee-for-service deal,” but Democrats can push to “change that equation.” He also said he’s asked his state’s pension funds to reconsider any investments to El Salvador.

He added that he believes Abrego Garcia is “clearly traumatized” by being held in El Salvador. Van Hollen confirmed his well-being in his April 17 visit of him, accusing President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele of “lying through their teeth” about the Maryland man.

He said the courts, which have ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, will hold them in contempt and called the situation a “constitutional crisis.”

“Nobody wants to get there, but apparently Donald Trump, or someone in the White House — maybe it’s [Stephen] Miller — is interested in reaching that point,” Van Hollen said. “In my view, we’re already in the constitutional crisis.”

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Bukele has signaled that he will not return Abrego Garcia, and mocked Van Hollen for the visit, saying he was “sipping margaritas” with him.

He denied the request of four House Democrats to meet with Abrego Garcia on Monday.