Maryland sheriff infuriated by senator’s trip to visit MS-13 suspect, silence on local murder victims

A Maryland sheriff slammed Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., for traveling to El Salvador to visit an alleged MS-13 gang member who was deported last month as other Democrats push for his release and argue that his removal was a mistake.

Harford County Sheriff Jeff Gahler called out Van Hollen for traveling out of the country to “bring a terrorist home,” while noting his silence on the brutal murders of local victims Rachel Morin and Kayla Hamilton. 

“Good for my state, good for my community, good for this country,” Gahler told Bill Hemmer on Thursday. “President Trump designated MS-13 [a terrorist organization]. I don’t think any police chief or sheriff in the country who’s being honest is… going to say it’s not a terrorist organization.”

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“That individual has been removed from our country, who should have been removed earlier,” he continued. “We have the left, we have Senator Van Hollen, who couldn’t even reach out to Patty or Tammy, Kayla’s mom, at the tragic taking of the daughter’s lives, but he can fly down there on taxpayer dollars to bring a terrorist home to Maryland. We don’t want that. We don’t want him in the country.”

Van Hollen flew to El Salvador to visit Abrego Garcia in prison and work to secure his release. His trip has been criticized by many, including the mother of Morin, a 39-year-old Maryland mother who was raped and murdered by a Salvadoran illegal immigrant in 2023.

“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. Why does that person have more rights than I do, or my daughter, or my grandchildren? I don’t understand this,” she said. 

Meanwhile, Fox News obtained court records filed in a Prince George’s County, Maryland, district court by his wife, alleging that he violently beat her on several occasions. 

In the filing, written in Vasquez’s own handwriting, she alleges Abrego Garcia repeatedly beat her, writing: “At this point, I am afraid to be close to him. I have multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he [has] left me.”

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“He’s a domestic violence abuser,” Gahler said. “In our community, we would screen him working with ICE and hopefully they would decide to take removal proceedings for just that reason. And he’s been through removal proceedings before and they asked for him to be removed, and yet he was still here.” 

“So kudos on the Trump administration for removing the criminal, horrible on Senator Van Hollen for wanting to bring him back.”

DHS also released new documents this week, which it says definitively proves Abrego Garcia, who was deported to the El Salvadoran mega prison “Terrorism Confinement Center” (CECOT), is a member of the notorious MS-13 gang.

Gahler said he has “no doubt” that is the case. 

Last week, the Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision ordering the Trump administration to arrange Abrego Garcia’s return. The court required 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.” 

The Trump administration agreed to clear any administrative obstacles keeping Abrego Garcia from returning to the U.S., but Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that returning him is “up to El Salvador. If they want to return him. That’s not up to us.” 

Despite this, during an Oval Office visit this week, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said he has no intention of sending him back to the United States. 

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Fox News’ Peter Pinedo, Greg Wehner and Bill Melugin contributed to this report.