Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) (LAW ’90) detailed his fight against the administration of President Donald Trump at a Georgetown University College Democrats (GUCD) event Dec 2.
Van Hollen, who was named GUCD’s “Alum of the Year,” recounted his visit to El Salvador in April following the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was living in the United States with withholding of removal status, which prevents an immigrant from being deported based on threats in their home country. Van Hollen also highlighted his strategy for Democrats in the 2026 midterm elections and confirmed his involvement in a Senate “Fight Club,” the colloquial name for a group of Democrats opposed to Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer’s (D-N.Y.) political strategy.
Van Hollen said he visited El Salvador after sending a letter to Salvadoran Ambassador to the United States Milena Mayorga and being denied a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele while he was visiting the United States.
“I wrote to the ambassador from El Salvador to the United States, saying while President Bukele is here I would like to meet with him to discuss getting Kilmar Abrego Garcia released from this notorious prison and brought back to the U.S.,” Van Hollen said at the event. “Well, they blew me off. I had put in that letter that if I didn’t get a chance to meet with them, I would go to El Salvador — so I got on a plane.”
Van Hollen said although Salvadoran officials initially denied him a meeting with Abrego Garcia, they were allowed to meet following a press conference held by Van Hollen.
“I was pulled over by the soldiers in El Salvador who had been specifically assigned to not let me go meet him, and so I came back to San Salvador, the capital, did a press conference there and made the point that El Salvador was in gross violation of international law,” Van Hollen said. “Nobody had had a chance to talk to him, and I wasn’t sure if I’d have a chance either. But then we got a call, and the publicity was really bad, so they would allow me to meet with him.”
Van Hollen said the Trump administration has repeatedly violated the rule of law, free speech and due process, pointing to the detention of Georgetown postdoctoral fellow Badar Khan Suri as an example.
“They brought in Elon Musk, the richest person in the world, to start dismantling parts of the U.S. government, illegally impounding funds,” Van Hollen said. “You saw a crackdown on free speech, where they had sent masked agents on the college campuses to arrest and detain people based on what they said.
“At Georgetown, you had one of your post-docs, I think his name was Suri, who was detained,” he added. “He’s still involved in legal proceedings, but you saw that crackdown around the country, including a crackdown on due process.”
Van Hollen, speaking on his experience at the Gaza border, said although he supports Israel’s right to self-defense, Democrats should be vocal about Israel’s attacks on Palestinians living in Gaza, citing a broad humanitarian crisis across the region.
“I fully support the right of Israel to respond to Hamas after the heinous Oct. 7 attacks,” Van Hollen said. “They have the right to self defense — in fact, a duty. But what was clear from early on was that the Netanyahu government was not just targeting Hamas. They were imposing collective punishment on all the people of Gaza, and it started early on in terms of many indiscriminate bombings, and then the way humanitarian aid has been restricted over a period of time.”
Van Hollen said the “Fight Club,” which pressures Schumer to support populist candidates, criticizes the strategy of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee (DSCC), a fundraising committee dedicated to electing Senate Democrats, for being indifferent toward Trump.
“In this case right now, the DSCC has gotten involved to one degree or another in some of these Senate races, in the primaries,” Van Hollen said. “A group of us were pushing back against that. We will continue to voice our views when it comes to the DSCC weighing in on those races.”
Van Hollen said that although Democrat successes in 2025 elections, like winning the Virginia and New Jersey gubernatorial elections, present a favorable outlook for the 2026 midterms, Democrats need to focus on enacting change.
“I do think that what happened a few weeks ago is a good sign for the midterms, but as we go into 2028, Democrats need to make it clear what we stand for,” Van Hollen said. “One of the great great concerns is the last presidential election. How is it that the American people chose Donald Trump? They saw him as the guy who was going to take any status quo — and the status quo is not something anybody is or should be happy about.”
