In a conflict with Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D) that went nicely past the senator’s allotted questioning time, Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended the Trump administration’s mass deportation efforts and even instructed that no courtroom might inform him easy methods to do his job.
Rubio appeared Tuesday to reply questions at a Senate Foreign Relations Committee listening to on the State Department’s proposed 2026 funds.
But the verbal onslaught he delivered in protection of President Donald Trump’s excessive immigration coverage prompted retorts from the senator after an overlapping back-and-forth about pro-Palestinian scholar protesters. Van Hollen pointed to Rümeysa Öztürk, the Tufts University scholar who wrote an opinion piece for the coed newspaper in protection of Gaza that led to her visa revocation.
Rubio has claimed that he has the authority to revoke any visa if the holder poses a menace to U.S. international relations — a rationale that he even utilized to Öztürk.
“The bottom line is if you come here to stir up trouble on our campuses, we will deny you a visa,” Rubio mentioned.
Van Hollen tried to interject by asking, “Does the First Amendment apply to people living in the United States?”
But Rubio continued: “There are more coming. We’re going to continue to revoke the visas of people who are here as guests and are disrupting our higher education facilities. People are paying money, these kids pay money to go to school …”
“Writing an op-ed to the Tuft’s newspaper is disrupting the foreign policy of the United States? That’s pathetic, Mr. Secretary,” Van Hollen mentioned over Rubio.
“I feel so much safer when you lock up people like Ms. Öztürk, Mr. Secretary,” he added with sarcasm.
At one other level, the senator mentioned he regretted voting to verify Rubio to his place. Afterward, Van Hollen wrote on social media that it appeared his former Senate colleague “has had a full MAGA lobotomy.”
“The Marco Rubio who testified today is not the one I served with in the Senate,” he wrote.
The conflict was considerably predictable: Van Hollen has been a vocal critic of Rubio since a Maryland man, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, was mistakenly deported to an El Salvador megaprison in March.
The Trump administration has repeatedly asserted that Abrego Garcia is “never” coming again to the U.S., the place he had been a husband and father who labored in building. Rubio echoed the administration’s line on Abrego Garcia on the listening to, claiming that he’s a “gangbanger,” though there may be little proof to counsel Abrego Garcia’s involvement with any gang. Federal courts have ordered his return partially so he could make his case in opposition to the accusation of gang exercise, however Trump’s Justice Department has to date prevented doing so.
Last month, Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador to satisfy with Abrego Garcia. The senator mentioned later that he believed drinks that seemed to be margaritas have been delivered to the resort desk the place he sat speaking with Abrego Garcia with a purpose to coloration their assembly as leisurely.
“We deported gang members. Gang members. Including the one you had a margarita with. And that guy is a human trafficker and that guy is a gangbanger, and the evidence is going to be clear in the days to come you’re going to see who you went to defend,” Rubio mentioned on the listening to.
“Mr. Chairman, he can’t make unsubstantiated comments like that,” Van Hollen replied, including: “Secretary Rubio should take that testimony to federal court of the United States because he hasn’t done it under oath.”
“Here’s another point, OK?” Rubio continued. “There is a division in our government between the federal branch and the judicial branch. No judge — the judicial branch cannot tell me or the president how to conduct foreign policy.”
Federal courts have tried to steadiness the president’s authority to conduct international coverage with their very own obligation to the regulation.
“Come on, Mr. Secretary. You’re just blowing smoke here now,” Van Hollen replied.
https://www.huffpost.com/entry/chris-van-hollen-marco-rubio-immigration-rant_n_682cb324e4b01df8005f416d