Trump says career gov employees working on policy will be fired if they don’t adhere to his agenda
Hubnews1- Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., claims the margaritas were not real. The outrage, he claims, is genuine.
Returning from a highly publicized visit to El Salvador to see deported illegal immigrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia, Van Hollen spoke to reporters Thursday upon arrival at Dulles International Airport in Virginia. He tried to get to the bottom of what’s now being referred to as “margarita-gate,” a viral photo posted by Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele that seemed to depict the senator and Garcia sitting informally at a table with two salt-rimmed cocktails.
“Let me just be very clear,” Van Hollen said. “Neither of us touched the drinks that were in front of us. And if you want to play a little Sherlock Holmes, I’ll tell you how you can know that. … If you sip out of one of those glasses, some of whatever it was — salt or sugar — would disappear. You would see a gap. There’s no gap.”.
Van Hollen said glasses were put on the table after the session started as a staged photo opportunity, pointing out earlier videos reveal the table without beverages. Van Hollen accused both El Salvador President Nayib Bukele and the Trump administration of attempting to deflect attention from what he said was a constitutional crisis.
“This is a lesson into the lengths that President Bukele will go to mislead people,” Van Hollen said. “And it also indicates the lengths that the Trump administration and the president will go, because when he was questioned by a reporter about this, he just went along for the ride.”
Trump weighed in, tweeting on Truth Social Friday, “Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland appeared to be a fool yesterday standing in El Salvador begging for attention from the Fake News Media, or anyone. GRANDSTANDER!!!”
READ MORE:Kilmar Abrego Garcia meets with Maryland senator in El Salvador, weeks after mistaken deportation
The controversy arises from the case of Garcia, a 29-year-old Salvadoran citizen deported from Maryland last month and sent to the country’s infamous CECOT prison.
Federal authorities have referred to the deportation as an “administrative error” in court. Van Hollen and other Democrats have since contended it infringed on Garcia’s constitutional right to due process.
But the Trump administration has pushed back, citing Garcia’s reported domestic abuse, gang affiliations and suspected human trafficking involvement.
A 2022 report by Homeland Security Investigations listed Garcia as a suspected human trafficker and MS-13 member. A 2021 domestic violence complaint, authored by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez, alleged, “I have several photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he [has] left me.”
In spite of such reports, Van Hollen asserts that no evidence has been put forward in court and that the deportation was illegal. He referenced decisions by a federal district court and the U.S. Supreme Court mandating Garcia’s return.
“The government here, the Trump administration, is claiming a right to store citizens of this nation in overseas prisons without the pretense of due process,” Van Hollen said, quoting a recent Fourth Circuit ruling. “That is the basis of our constitutional order.”
He continued that Judge Paula Xinis, the federal judge who initially examined the case, concluded that the administration “provided no evidence associating Abrego Garcia with MS-13 or any terrorist activity.”
Trump strongly defended the deportation, though. On a Truth Social and X post, he claimed the Democrats were calling for the return of a gang-affiliated, violent individual, with him holding a picture purportedly depicting Garcia’s fist with MS-13 gang symbols tattooed on his knuckles.
In his tweet, President Trump stated: “This is the hand of the man that the Democrats believe should be brought back to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person.’ They said he is not a member of MS-13, even though he’s got MS-13 tattooed onto his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts found that he was a member of MS-13, beat up his wife, etc. I was elected to take bad people out of the United States, among other things. I must be allowed to do my job. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
Van Hollen visited El Salvador this week following a denial by the Salvadoran government of access to Garcia. After media attention, he reported, officials set up a meeting at a hotel, which was videotaped. He reported that Salvadoran troops had earlier blocked him from reaching the prison and was taken aback by the last-minute authorization to visit.
He also disclosed that the U.S. had allocated $15 million to El Salvador to fund detention operations and announced more than $4 million already had been disbursed. Van Hollen alleged the money was unauthorized and promised to vote against future appropriations.
“I will not approve the spending of one penny of taxpayer money to keep Abrego Garcia illegally detained in El Salvador,” he said.
Critics, including Republicans and Trump supporters, have challenged Van Hollen’s reasoning for going overseas to lobby on behalf of someone with suspected gang affiliation and a history of domestic violence and not speaking out for victims such as Rachel Morin, who was killed by an illegal immigrant in 2023 in Maryland.
The White House drew a stark contrast, sharing side-by-side images of Trump sitting down with Morin’s mother and Van Hollen sitting down with Abrego Garcia. The caption: “We are not the same.”
The American Civil Liberties Union pleaded the case before the U.S. Supreme Court on Friday, seeking an emergency injunction against the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan nationals detained in Texas back to South America under the little used Alien Enemies Act.
Pressed on the comparison, Van Hollen said his “heart breaks” for Morin’s family but stood by his actions as rooted in the Constitution.
“The reason we have courts of law is to punish the guilty, but also to ensure that those who have not committed crimes are not found guilty and arbitrarily detained,” he said.
ACLU appeals to Supreme Court to stop Venezuelan deportations; Boasberg holds emergency hearing Friday night
The Supreme Court has already decided that there are limitations on how the government is allowed to utilize the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, such as the fact that individuals who are being targeted under it have a right to a hearing prior to being deported.
The ACLU, before appealing to the Supreme Court on Friday, had requested two federal judges for an injunction against the deportations.
One of the judges, James E. Boasberg, set a Friday night hearing over the petition.
Boasberg, who initially decided on the Alien Enemies Act, already established probable cause that the Trump administration engaged in criminal contempt in disregarding his order on the deportations.
The Supreme Court then decided that only judges in the regions from where migrants are going to be deported have jurisdiction over their cases.
Boasberg sits in Washington, D.C.
He informed ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt on Friday night at the emergency hearing, “I’m sympathetic to everything you’re saying, I just don’t think I have the power to do anything about it.”
Late Friday, a fellow Washington, D.C.-based circuit judge made an “administrative stay” of Boasberg’s finding of contempt, “to afford the court a reasonable opportunity to consider the emergency motion for stay pending appeal or a writ of mandamus.”
The order specified that it wasn’t to be construed as ruling “on the merits” on the Trump administration’s motion against the contempt proceeding.
Judges in New York and south Texas have temporarily suspended deportations there, but there is no prohibition for the Venezuelan nationals in danger of being deported from the Bluebonnet Detention Center in north Texas.
The ACLU has demanded a ban on deportation of two Venezuelans detained at the center2, accusing the administration of charging them with being members of the Tren de Aragua gang, and any immigrants in the area.
In a separate case, the San Francisco-based 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Friday turned down an attempt by the Trump administration to deny Temporary Protected Status (TPS) to about 350,000 Venezuelan migrants, making them eligible for deportation.
TPS is good for six to 18 months and is given to individuals from nations that are war-torn or afflicted with a natural disaster or some other calamity that would make it unsafe to return.
The court affirmed a March decision by a lower court that halted Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s attempt to strip some Venezuelans in the country of their protected status.
President Trump on Friday also weighed in on the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who had been residing in Maryland and had protections from deportation, who was erroneously deported to a county prison last month.
“This is the hand of the man that the Democrats want to return to the United States, because he is such ‘a fine and innocent person,'” Trump posted on Truth Social with a photo of him with his hand holding up a photo that indicates tattoos on Garcia’s knuckles. The photo indicates the letters on Garcia’s knuckles read MS-13.
He went on to say how: “They’re telling me he is not a member of MS-13, yet he’s got MS-13 tattooed on his knuckles, and two Highly Respected Courts have decided he was a member of MS-13, assaulted his wife, etc. I voted to remove bad people from the United States, among other things. I have to be allowed to do my job.”.
Trump says career gov employees working on policy will be fired if they don’t adhere to his agenda
President Trump on Friday announced that career government workers who deal with policy issues for the administration will be redesignated “Schedule Policy/Career,” – or at-will employees – and will be terminated if they fail to conform to his agenda.
“Thanks to my Day One Executive Order, the Office of Personnel Management will be issuing new Civil Service Regulations for career government employees,” the president posted on Truth Social Friday afternoon.
He continued, “Going forward, career government employees, serving on policy issues, will be categorized as ‘Schedule Policy/Career,’ and will be subject to the best standards of conduct and performance.”
This is as the Trump administration continues to dismiss federal employees in a bid to contract the government.
The Office of Personnel Management (OPM) of the administration estimated that the Trump executive order “Restoring Accountability to Policy-Influencing Positions Within the Federal Workforce” would impact approximately 50,000 employees or 2% of the federal workforce, according to a Friday memo by the White House.
The rules for civil service workers “with significant policy-determining, policy-making, policy-advocating, or confidential responsibilities” will now be treated as “at-will” employees, “without recourse to onerous adverse action procedures or appeals, reversing Biden Administration rules that shielded poor performing workers.”
Trump went on to say in his post: “If these government employees won’t further the policy goals of the President, or are corrupt, they should no longer work for our government. It is common sense, and will permit the federal government to finally be ‘run like a business.’ We must eliminate corruption and institute accountability in our Federal Workforce!”
The White House explained the “rule enables federal agencies to quickly remove employees in policy-shaping positions for poor performance, misconduct, corruption, or defiance of Presidential directives, without cumbersome procedural barriers.”
The employees are not expected to personally support the president, but “must faithfully execute the law and the administration’s policies.”
