The White House mocked Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen on social media Wednesday, and asked him to share the story of Harford County mother Rachel Morin, whose killer was convicted at trial earlier this week.
Van Hollen is currently in El Salvador out of concern for a mistakenly deported Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Van Hollen posted on X, saying he “won’t stop fighting until he’s home.”
Speaking at a White House briefing on Wednesday, Patty Morin, Rachel Morin’s mother expressed her displeasure with Sen. Van Hollen’s visit to El Salvador.
“Why are we not protecting the American citizens? It’s just common sense, why are we not protecting our children,” Morin said.
She expressed frustration that the senator, who she claimed barely acknowledged her daughter’s brutal death, would use taxpayer money to travel to El Salvador.
“To have a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge or barely acknowledge my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother and now a grandbaby without a grandmother, so that he can use my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that’s not even an American citizen,” Morin said.
“Why does that person have more right than I do? Or my daughter or my grandchildren? I don’t understand this,” she continued.
On Thursday, Van Hollen says he was denied entry into the El Salvador prison where Abrego Garcia is being held.
Trump officials have said that Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was living in Maryland, has ties to the MS-13 gang, but his attorneys say the government has provided no evidence of that and Abrego Garcia has never been charged with any crime related to such activity.
Trump officials reiterated Wednesday that he would not be returned to the United States.
