Fox News’ “Outnumbered” panel were outraged over the news that Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen is planning to go to El Salvador “to show solidarity” with a recently deported illegal immigrant.
Van Hollen said he plans to meet with El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to discuss the release of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran illegal migrant who was among many suspected criminals and gang members deported to an El Salvadoran prison last month.
Host Kayleigh McEnany pointed out that Democrats like Van Hollen, along with the mainstream media, have taken to referring to Abrego Garcia as a “Maryland man” despite his illegal status in what appeared to be sympathy for him. By contrast, she remarked on how there has been silence regarding the recent trial surrounding Maryland mother Rachel Morin, who was murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2023.
“I haven’t heard the media figures talk about the Maryland mother who was a U.S. citizen,” McEnany said.
“Let alone the senator from Maryland who now wants to fly to El Salvador to show solidarity with a Salvadoran national whose family remains in Maryland,” Fox News contributor Kellyanne Conway remarked.
Conway praised Bukele’s response to the media by insisting that he cannot “smuggle a terrorist” into the U.S. and does not plan to facilitate his return. She also called out the media for ignoring U.S. victims of illegal immigrants.
“I’ve had it up to here,” Conway said. “In the age of Trump, the media pretend they are trying to get the story. They are always trying to get the president and his advisors. I am sick and tired of these Democrats sticking up for other people’s citizens, putting America last. They are pro-China. They’re pro-El Salvador, MS-13 gang members.”
She continued, “They have never said the words Jocelyn Nungaray or even describe her, 2-hour rape victim under a bridge by two people who should not have been here. Have they said Laken Riley, went and looked it up? Has Hakeem Jeffries said her name? The answer is no. They could not even stand up for her and her family when President Trump mentioned those names at his joint session of Congress a short month or so ago. This is who the Democratic Party is.”
The Supreme Court ruled last week that a lower court’s order “requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
Abrego Garcia was granted temporary protection status in the U.S. by a court in 2019 from being removed to El Salvador, after it determined he would face criminal prosecution from gangs if he were removed to his home country.
The Trump administration later admitted his deportation was an “administrative error.”
The panel added that the White House has said Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, whom the Trump administration designated as a terrorist organization earlier this year.
“Why are people willing to fight to get criminals back into this country?” panel member Harris Faulkner asked. “We can’t even handle all the ones who are already on our streets. Why do you want more of them? And two courts found this guy was a terrorist — I mean, a gang member tied to domestic terrorism. That’s what they are. They are gangs. So you want to bring him back into the country, and then you want this Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland to go there to what, AOC this, stand by the window, cheer for him or whatever?”
Fox News contributor Guy Benson said regardless of whether Abrego Garcia has gang ties, he does not have the right to return to the U.S. because of his illegal status.
Culture & Group CEO Lili Gil Valletta closed the segment by remarking how the effort to try and return Abrego Garcia is insulting to legal immigrants.
“As an immigrant myself, I find it ironic we are putting so much effort in one case in El Salvador when we have about 1.5 million highly skilled workers on our own backlog that we want to have in our country, and some have to be sent back,” Valetta said.
She added, “Engineers, scientists, artists, people like me that spend 10 years waiting to be naturalized as a citizen through the right process. Imagine if that same energy was put into repatriating that brain drain we have. The priorities, you know, get politicized, and we’re chasing a ghost while we’re losing talent to Canada, the U.K., Australia, wherever a lot of these migrants go because we have not figured it out for our own nation. It’s ironic. Those of us who have the process feel the pain of the double standard that comes with this kind of story.”
