The fight over the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia has consumed Washington and ignited a debate over immigration policy and due process.
In March, Abrego Garcia, who lived with his wife in Maryland, was sent to El Salvador’s notorious terrorist confinement center (CECOT). On Thursday, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) visited Abrego Garcia at the CECOT prison in El Salvador.
Van Hollen is expected to provide an update on his condition on several Sunday shows this week. The Democrat is slated to appear on five major cable networks to discuss his trip to the Central American country.
Other administration officials sitting down on talk shows this weekend include Environmental Protection Agency Administrator Lee Zeldin and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum, who are likely to tout the administration’s efforts to reduce the size and scope of the federal government by rolling back some regulations and slashing spending.
Democrats have pushed back on much of these actions and slammed the Trump administration for revoking research grants related to climate change and the effects of environmental pollution.
Several Democrats, including House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (N.Y.) and Sen. Amy Klobuchar (Minn.), are expected to reiterate these critiques on Sunday.
Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healy (D) is also joining CBS’s “Face The Nation,” where she is likely to weigh in on Harvard University’s battle with the Trump administration over federal funding.
Read the full Sunday shows line up here and follow along below for today’s updates.
Klobuchar argues Abrego Garcia fight is administration’s distraction from economy
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) said she believes the deportation fight over Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia is the Trump administration’s way of distracting public attention away from the tariffs and economic impacts.
Klobuchar joined CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, highlighting her fellow Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s (Md.) trip to El Salvador to meet with the Abrego Garcia amid the administration’s defiance in the legal battle.
“They have picked out this case and this man because it’s about a subject that they want to keep in the news,” Klobuchar said of Abrego Garcia’s deportation. “So, it’s even more cynical than just flaunting the law.”
“They’re doing it because they want to distract people from the fact that our economy is in a tailspin thanks to them, their tariffs,” she continued.
ABC News anchor presses Homan on whether Trump could get Bukele to cooperate in Abrego Garcia case
ABC News anchor Jonathan Karl pressed Trump border czar Tom Homan on whether he thinks President Trump could get El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, to release Kilmar Abrego Garcia from custody.
In an interview Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Homan recognized that the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from Salvadoran custody and return to the U.S. — after the administration previously acknowledged he had been mistakenly deported.
Homan added, however, that Abrego Garcia is “a national of the country, so El Salvador would certainly have to cooperate in that.”
Karl zeroed in on that claim, pushing Homan to acknowledge that Trump could compel Bukele’s cooperation if he wanted to.
“But you said that El Salvador would have to cooperate. You have no doubt that if President Trump wanted him returned, that he could ask President Bukele to return him, right?” Karl asked. “I mean, President Trump could make this happen.”
Speaking over the ABC anchor, Homan responded, “I am not involved in the discussion. I can’t comment on something I don’t know.”
Emmer disagrees with Van Hollen, says Abrego Garcia was given due process
Majority Whip Rep. Tom Emmer (R-Minn.) disagreed with Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) and said Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the recently deported Maryland man, was given due process.
Emmer joined CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, where host Dana Bash asked him to weigh in on Van Hollen’s earlier accusation that the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia without giving him his constitutional due process rights.
“It’s very interesting when people talk about the fact that this illegal alien, who is not a resident of the U.S., he is a citizen of El Salvador, actually did have due process in an asylum hearing, where his request for asylum was rejected by the Trump administration as part of the promise that they made during the campaign,” Emmer said.
Emmer, like other Trump allies, has accused Abrego Garcia of being part of the Venezuelan gang MS-13 and said the administration was deporting violent members of the gang. Abrego Garcia and his wife have both denied the accusation that he is part of the gang.
Van Hollen says El Salvador wanted Abrego Garcia meeting to ‘look like he was in paradise’
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, wanted his meeting with the mistakenly deported Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, to “look like he was in paradise.”
The Maryland senator made the rounds on Sunday morning news shows and described his meeting with Abrego Garcia, which he managed to secure in El Salvador this past week after his initial efforts were rejected and he was denied entry to the prison.
“I think at some point, the president of El Salvador realized it was looking really bad to have… this person who had been absconded from America, from the streets of Maryland, in one of their prisons and not able to communicate,” Van Hollen said in an interview on ABC News’s “This Week.”
“So, I ended up getting a call saying, ‘we will bring him to your hotel,’ and that’s how we met,” he added.
Van Hollen said Salvadoran officials initially wanted to hold the meeting by the swimming pool at the hotel, but they negotiated those terms.
Van Hollen on Abrego Garcia: ‘I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process’
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) on Sunday defended his efforts to protect Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s rights, even as President Trump and his allies levy serious allegations against the deported Maryland man and highlight his mixed court record.
In an interview on ABC News’s “This Week,” host Jonathan Karl asked Van Hollen about “some pretty serious allegations of abuse” that Abrego Garcia’s wife previously made in court and President Trump has highlighted in recent days.
“Obviously, everybody in this country, even those undocumented immigrants, have rights. But are you concerned about standing so forcefully with somebody that has, you know, at least a questionable record?” Karl asked.
Van Hollen said he is defending the principle, not Abrego Garcia’s record.
“I am not defending the man. I’m defending the rights of this man to due process,” Van Hollen said. “And the Trump administration has admitted in court that he was wrongfully detained and wrongfully deported.
Van Hollen says leaders who don’t fight for Constitution don’t deserve to lead
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) argued that elected officials and politicians on both sides of the aisle need to step up to fight for the Constitution and if they don’t, they don’t deserve to lead.
Van Hollen joined CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, shortly after he returned from a trip to El Salvador to meet with wrongfully deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
His trip was criticized by the Trump administration and GOP officials, but Democrats have sounded the alarm that Abrego Garcia was denied due process rights and the administration is skirting judicial power by avoiding the Supreme Court order to facilitate his return.
Host Dana Bash asked Van Hollen about the theory that the administration is picking a fight over Abrego Garcia’s deportation to distract from the administration’s tariffs.
“I don’t think it’s ever wrong to fight for the constitutional rights of one person, because if we give up on one person’s rights, we threaten everybody’s rights,” he said.
Van Hollen: Denying constitutional rights of ‘one man’ threatens ‘rights of everybody’
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) argued that if the Trump administration denies the rights of one man, his constituent Kilmar Abrego Garcia, they are threatening the rights of “everybody.”
Van Hollen joined CNN’s “State of the Union” on Sunday, just after he returned to the United States after a trip to El Salvador to visit with Abrego Garcia, a wrongfully deported man.
Pope Francis appears on Easter Sunday after brief meeting with Vance
Pope Francis appeared for Easter mass and in St. Peter’s Square on Sunday morning after a brief meeting with Vice President Vance.
“Pope Francis had a brief private encounter … lasting a few minutes, in order to exchange good wishes on Easter day,” the Vatican said in a statement.
Vance, who is a Catholic, has clashed with Pope Francis over the Trump administration’s immigration policies. He met with Francis at the Vatican to exchange greetings on Easter Sunday.
“It was an honor to visit the Vatican during Holy Week, and a blessing to experience the beauty and reverence of the Good Friday liturgy at St. Peter’s Basilica,” Vance said in a post online on Saturday.