Politics
U.S. senator keeps word, goes to El Salvador to check on wrongly deported man – National TenX News
Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen has followed through on his promise to travel to El Salvador to check up on a wrongly deported man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Van Hollen vowed to visit the country by midweek if the U.S. government failed to obey a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old Maryland resident and father of three who was deported last month.
READ MORE: U.S. senator says he’s travelling to El Salvador if Trump won’t return wrongfully deported man
Speaking to reporters at the airport on Wednesday morning, Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia was “illegally snatched off the streets,” calling the situation the Trump administration has created for everyone in the country “a nightmare.”
“It’s a very short road to tyranny,” he added.
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) speaks to the media alongside union leaders and workers outside the Office of Personnel Management (OPM) headquarters on March 04, 2025 in Washington, DC. Workers gathered to protest recent cuts made to the department by Elon Musk’s Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE).
Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images
During his visit, Van Hollen told reporters that he intends to check on Abrego Garcia’s well-being, report on his condition and speak with senior government officials in El Salvador.
Van Hollen has been in communication with the Salvadoran embassy, but said he will gain a better understanding of who he will be able to meet with once he arrives.
It remains unclear if he will be able to see Abrego Garcia in person.
“My overall purpose here is to send a signal that we are not going to stop fighting for his return until he is actually released,” Van Hollen said, adding that he has promised the man’s family he will do everything within his power to secure his safe return.
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“I may be the first senator or first member of Congress to go down to El Salvador, but people are gonna keep on coming until he comes home,” he continued.
Van Hollen’s visit comes days after U.S. President Donald Trump met with El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, in the Oval Office on Monday.
Ahead of Monday’s presidential audience, Van Hollen wrote to the El Salvador ambassador urgently requesting a meeting with Bukele.
“I have met with Mr. Abrego Garcia’s wife, mother, and brother, and, as you can imagine, they are extremely worried about his health, safety, and continued illegal confinement, as am I,” he wrote in a letter dated April 13.
It’s not known if Van Hollen and Bukele met.
During Trump and Bukele’s conversation, Bukele argued he lacked the power to return Abrego Garcia, saying it would be “preposterous” to “smuggle a terrorist into the United States.”
Meanwhile, the Trump administration said his return to the U.S. was up to El Salvador.
In its ruling on April 10, the Supreme Court said that “The United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador, and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal.”
“The order properly 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.”
Ahead of his flight on Wednesday morning, Van Hollen accused the Trump administration of picking on the country’s most vulnerable populations and criticized his flagrant disregard for court orders and the rule of law.
“This is a person who is here legally. He has never been even charged in a criminal case. He’s never been convicted in a criminal case. So, when the vice-president tweets out he’s been convicted, that’s just not true. I mean, you saw lie after lie after lie coming out of the White House. They’re gaslighting the American people on this case, so they can say what they want, but in the United States of America, at least so far, we respect the rule of law,” Van Hollen said.
Van Hollen was referring to an X post made by U.S. Vice-President JD Vance on Tuesday.
“When the media and the far left obsess over an MS-13 gang member and demand that he be returned to the United States for a *third* deportation hearing, what they’re really saying is they want the vast majority of illegal aliens to stay here permanently,” Vance wrote.
On Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg found probable cause that the Trump administration acted in contempt of court when it defied his order to turn around two planes carrying alleged Venezuelan gang members — including Abredo Garcia — to El Salvador.
“The Constitution does not tolerate willful disobedience of judicial orders — especially by officials of a coordinate branch who have sworn an oath to uphold it,” Boasberg wrote in a memorandum opinion.
“To permit such officials to freely ‘annul the judgments of the courts of the United States’ would not just ‘destroy the rights acquired under those judgments’; it would make ‘a solemn mockery’ of ‘the constitution itself, ‘” he continued.
Before his illegal detention, which the U.S government admitted was an “administrative error,” while claiming that he was a gang member, Abrego Garcia had resided in the U.S. for 14 years after fleeing there illegally in 2011 at the age of 16 to escape gang persecution in El Salvador.
He was arrested by county police in 2019 before being detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) as authorities believed he was a member of the MS-13 gang, a claim Abrego Garcia denies. His lawyers say he has never been charged with a crime.
Abrego Garcia later told an immigration judge he would seek asylum and requested to be released.
However, there was enough verified information allegedly connecting him to an MS-13 chapter in New York, where he had never lived, to keep him behind bars.
While in prison, Abrego Garcia married his long-term girlfriend, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who was five months into a high-risk pregnancy at the time; she gave birth while he was in jail.
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, leaves Federal Court on April 15, 2025, in Greenbelt, Md. The Trump administration admits Abrego Garcia was deported accidentally, but has not yet acted on a judge’s order to facilitate his return to the U.S.
Tasos Katopodis / Getty Images
In October 2019, an immigration judge denied Abrego Garcia’s asylum request but granted him protection from being deported back to El Salvador because of a “well-founded fear” of gang persecution, according to his case.
He was released, and ICE did not appeal.
Abrego Garcia checked in with ICE yearly and the Department of Homeland Security issued him a work permit, his lawyers said in court filings. He joined a union and was employed full-time as a sheet metal apprentice.
Abrego Garcia was on one of three high-profile flights to El Salvador on March 15 carrying alleged gang members, many of whom did not have criminal records.
He is currently detained at the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a notoriously dangerous prison housing hundreds of alleged gang members.
— With files from The Associated Press
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado said she presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to President Donald Trump at the White House on Thursday even as he has questioned her credibility to take over her country after the U.S. ousted then-President Nicolás Maduro.
The Nobel Institute has said Machado could not give her prize to Trump, an honour that he has coveted. Even if the gesture proves to be purely symbolic, it was extraordinary given that Trump has effectively sidelined Machado, who has long been the face of resistance in Venezuela. He has signalled his willingness to work with acting President Delcy Rodríguez, who had been Maduro’s second in command.
“I presented the president of the United States the medal, the Nobel Peace Prize,” Machado told reporters after leaving the White House and heading to Capitol Hill. She said she had done so “as a recognition for his unique commitment with our freedom.”
Trump confirmed later on social media that Machado had left the medal for him to keep, and he said it was an honour to meet her.
“She is a wonderful woman who has been through so much. María presented me with her Nobel Peace Prize for the work I have done,” Trump said in his post. “Such a wonderful gesture of mutual respect. Thank you María!”
The White House later posted a photo of Machado standing next to Trump in the Oval Office as he holds the medal in a large frame. A text in the frame reads, “Presented as a personal symbol of gratitude on behalf of the Venezuelan people in recognition of President Trump’s principled and decisive action to secure a free Venezuela.”
Trump has raised doubts about his stated commitment to backing democratic rule in Venezuela, giving no timetable on when elections might be held. Machado indicated that he had provided few specifics on that front during their discussion.
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She did not provide more information on what was said.
‘We can count on President Trump’
After the closed-door meeting, Machado greeted dozens of cheering supporters waiting for her near the White House gates, stopping to hug many.
“We can count on President Trump,” she told them without elaborating, prompting some to briefly chant, “Thank you, Trump.”
Before her visit to Washington, Machado had not been seen in public since she travelled last month to Norway, where her daughter received the peace prize on her behalf. She had spent 11 months in hiding in Venezuela before she appeared in Norway after the ceremony.
The jubilant scene after her meeting with Trump stood in contrast to political realities in Venezuela. Rodríguez remains in charge of day-to-day government operations, along with others in Maduro’s inner circle. In her first state of the union speech Thursday, the interim president promoted the resumption of diplomatic ties between the historic adversaries and advocated for opening the state-run oil industry to more foreign investment after Trump pledged to seize control of Venezuelan crude sales.
Trump has said it would be difficult for Machado to lead because she “doesn’t have the support within or the respect within the country.” Her party is widely believed to have won 2024 elections rejected by Maduro.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt called Machado “a remarkable and brave voice” but also said the meeting didn’t mean Trump’s opinion of her changed, calling it “a realistic assessment.”
Leavitt told reporters that Trump supported new Venezuelan elections “when the time is right” but did not say when he thought that might be.
A ‘frank and positive discussion’ about Venezuela
Leavitt said Machado had sought the face-to-face meeting without setting expectations for what would occur. She spent about two and a half hours at the White House.
“I don’t think he needs to hear anything from Ms. Machado,” the press secretary said while the meeting was still going on, other than to have a ”frank and positive discussion about what’s taking place in Venezuela.”
After leaving the White House, Machado went on to a closed-door meeting with a bipartisan group of senators.
Sen. Chris Murphy, D-Conn., said Machado told them that “if there’s not some progress, real progress towards a transition in power, and/or elections in the next several months, we should all be worried.”
“She reminded us that Delcy Rodríguez is, in many ways, worse than Maduro,” he added.
Asked if Machado had heard any commitment from the White House on holding elections in Venezuela, Murphy said, “No, I don’t think she got any commitment from them.”
Sen. Bernie Moreno, an Ohio Republican, was exultant following the meeting, saying Machado “delivered a message that loud and clear: What President Trump did was the most important, significant event in Latin America. That getting rid of Maduro was absolutely essential.”
Machado’s Washington stop coincided with U.S. forces in the Caribbean Sea seizing another sanctioned oil tanker that the Trump administration says had ties to Venezuela. It is part of a broader U.S. effort to take control of the South American country’s oil after U.S. forces captured Maduro and his wife less than two weeks ago at a heavily guarded compound in the Venezuelan capital of Caracas and brought them to New York to stand trial on drug trafficking charges.
Leavitt said Venezuela’s interim authorities have been fully cooperating with the Trump administration and noted that Rodríguez’s government said it planned to release more prisoners detained under Maduro. Among those released were five Americans this week.
Trump said Wednesday that he had a “great conversation” with Rodríguez, their first since Maduro was ousted.
Machado doesn’t get the nod from Trump
Just hours after Maduro’s capture, Trump said of Machado that “it would be very tough for her to be the leader.” Machado had steered a careful course to avoid offending Trump, notably after winning the peace prize, and had sought to cultivate relationships with him and key administration voices like Secretary of State Marco Rubio.
The industrial engineer and daughter of a steel magnate, Machado began challenging the ruling party in 2004, when the nongovernmental organization she co-founded, Súmate, promoted a referendum to recall then-President Hugo Chávez. The initiative failed, and Machado and other Súmate executives were charged with conspiracy.
A year later, she drew the anger of Chávez and his allies again for travelling to Washington to meet President George W. Bush, whom Chávez considered an adversary.
Almost two decades later, she marshalled millions of Venezuelans to reject Chávez’s successor, Maduro, for another term in the 2024 election. But ruling party-loyal electoral authorities declared him the winner despite ample credible evidence to the contrary. Ensuing anti-government protests ended in a brutal crackdown.
Politics
IMF chief backs Jerome Powell, U.S. Fed independence amid Trump pressure – National TenX News
International Monetary Fund chief Kristalina Georgieva on Thursday underscored the importance of keeping central banks independent and threw her support behind beleaguered Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell, who is facing a Trump administration investigation for renovation cost overruns.
Georgieva told Reuters in an interview that there was ample evidence that central bank independence worked in the interest of businesses and households, and that evidence-based, data-based decision-making is good for the economy.
The IMF managing director said she had worked with Powell and respected his professionalism.
“I have worked with Jay Powell. He is a very good professional, very decent man, and I think that his standing among his colleagues tells the story,” she said, when asked about a letter of support signed by her predecessor, Christine Lagarde, now head of the European Central Bank, and other large central banks.
Powell on Sunday disclosed that the Trump administration had opened an investigation into him over cost overruns for a $2.5 billion project to renovate two historical buildings at the Fed’s Washington headquarters complex.
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Powell denies wrongdoing and has called the unprecedented actions a pretext to put pressure on him for not bowing to U.S. President Donald Trump’s long-running demands for sharply lower interest rates.
The probe has sparked widespread criticism from some key members of Trump’s Republican Party in the U.S. Senate, which must confirm his nominee to succeed Powell, along with foreign economic officials, investors and former U.S. government officials from both political parties.
Trump has repeatedly derided Powell’s leadership of the Fed and attacked him, often personally, over what he sees as the Fed chair’s slow moves to cut interest rates. On Wednesday, he dismissed concerns that eroding central bank independence would undermine the value of the U.S. dollar and spark inflation, telling Reuters, “I don’t care.”
Georgieva said the IMF looked carefully at issues such as monetary and financial stability, as well as the strength of a country’s institutions. It was specifically interested in the Fed, given the role of the U.S. dollar as a reserve currency.
“It would be very good to see that there is a recognition … that the Fed is precious for the Americans. It is very important for the rest of the world,” she said.
Trump has also attempted to fire another Fed official, Governor Lisa Cook, who has challenged her termination in a legal case that will be argued before the Supreme Court next week.
B.C. Premier David Eby spoke to reporters on Thursday morning from Mumbai, India, during his six-day trade mission.
He said that mining and energy companies in India are showing an interest in B.C.
“They are looking strongly to LNG as one of their ways of reducing carbon intensity, as well as reducing smog in the country,” Eby said.
“And so B.C. LNG has been an item of considerable interest, especially the projects that are reaching final investment decision over the next year — LNG Canada Phase 2, KSI Lisims LNG — as well as the projects that are under construction like Woodfibre LNG.”
Eby was also asked about the rise in extortion cases in B.C.
He said the province’s extortion task force will provide an update next week.
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“We have assembled a remarkable and historic task force, RCMP, CBSA,” Eby said.
“There are more police in Surrey right now than there have ever been. The RCMP has surged resources into the community.”
Eby said he has not been happy with the fact that there has been no update from the task force and he has asked them to provide one.
“There have been some important developments, people deported, an arrest here in India, cooperation between the Indian government and the Canadian government on this at the law enforcement level,” he added.
“That needs to continue, but, bluntly, we need better results, we need to see more arrests and whatever we can do to support the police to get the job done, we will do so.”
As of Jan. 12, Surrey police said there have been 16 reported extortion incidents in the city since the beginning of the year.
© 2026 Global News, a division of Corus Entertainment Inc.
Trump gifted Nobel Peace Prize by Venezuela’s María Corina Machado – National TenX News
IMF chief backs Jerome Powell, U.S. Fed independence amid Trump pressure – National TenX News
B.C. Premier David Eby says province’s LNG, mining of interest to India TenX News
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