U.S. Border czar Tom Homan said the U.S. is “legally” enforcing immigration laws during an interview with ABC.
Homan said the highly publicized case surrounding deported former Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a good example of the Trump administration working to keep illegal criminals out of the country.
Homan went on to criticize Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen for traveling to El Salvador to try to return Garcia after his deportation. “What concerns me is Van Hollen never went to the border the last four years under Joe Biden. What shocks me is he’s remained silent on the travesty that happened on the southern border. Many people died, thousands of people died.”
Sen. Van Hollen also appeared on the program in a separate interview and challenged Homan to be truthful. “[Homan] is lying through his teeth on many places in that — in that record. And I have been actually fighting MS-13, probably longer than Donald Trump ever uttered the name MS-13.
“For 20 years in this region, I helped stand up the anti, you know, gang, anti-gang task force. But the idea that you can’t defend people’s rights under the Constitution and fight MS-13 and gang violence is a very dangerous idea.“
Van Hollen asserted he is the one standing on the Constitution. “I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process.”
Homan, in turn, offered the same analysis of the case from the position of the Trump administration. “We have followed the Constitution. We have followed the law. I am confident that everything we’ve done is follow laws within the constitutional constructs, absolutely.”
Garcia remains in an El Salvador jail. The government has made no attempt to send him back to the United States. The Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return, but Justices stopped short of directly ordering the government to bring him back.
