Mika from Morning Joe encourages Democratic politician to make controversial statement about a deceased pope and migrants

Morning Joe star Mika Brzezinski sparked a response from Democratic senator when she implied that the late Pope Francis would have wanted a deported MS-13 suspect to be brought back to the US.

The discussion began when Brzezinski directed a pointed question to Senator Chris Van Hollen regarding Francis’s recent address in St. Peter’s Square on Easter Sunday, where he highlighted the challenges faced by the vulnerable, marginalized, and migrants.

Quoting the Pope’s words, Brzezinski initiated a conversation that led to the senator’s provocative statement about the deported MS-13 suspect returning to the US, suggesting it aligned with Pope Francis’s message about compassion towards those in need.

‘And here we are – you on ,I guess just back now from El Salvador, dealing with the issue of just one of the many people who have been forcibly removed, disappeared. I mean, some might even see it as a kidnapping. It’s definitely not a deportation.’

‘Where does the plight of Kilmar Abrego Garcia stand now?’

She was referring to a migrant deported from Van Hollen’s native Maryland on suspicion of being an MS-13 gangster. 

The Trump administration has admitted Garcia was deported by mistake but has so-far refused to return him despite a Supreme Court ruling. 

Van Hollen answered: ‘Well, you’re very right. I read Pope Francis’s remarks. He was a beautiful soul. A pope for all of humanity and he focused on the most vulnerable, and on natural rights.

‘On the right of everybody to be free under the law.

‘And the whole point here that we’re making is that the Trump administration needs to respect the Constitution of the United States. 

Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen appeared to use his platform on Monday’s Morning Joe to use Pope Francis ‘s death to further fuel bipartisan debate over the accidental deportation of a suspected MS-13 member

Kilmar Abrego Garcia – a 29-year-old El Salvadoran who had been living in Hollen’s state for several years with a wife and kids – was deported from the US last month. He entered the country illegally almost 15 years ago, and he is  a suspect MS-13 member

‘When you threaten the rights of one man like Abrego Garcia, take away the rights of one man like Abrego Garcia, you threaten the rights for everybody.’

Discourse has since swirled after the White House admitted Abrego Garcia was deported back to his home country in error, after he entered the US illegally in 2011.  

A judge went on to block his return to El Salvador in 2019, based on the fact that MS-13 members were after him. The court ruled the suspected gangster could be deported elsewhere, however – paving the way for the current, confusing situation.

As Democrats and anti-deportation activists continue to claim the man’s deportation was unjust, the Supreme Court has demanded Trump facilitate his return to the US.

But the White House insists Garcia is an MS-13 gangster and has also revealed how he was previously accused of beating his wife on multiple occasions.  

Brzezinski indicated she agreed with Van Hollen and helped him warm to his theme. 

‘In this case, the Trump administration is flouting the law because the Supreme Court on a 9-0 ruling said that they had to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia,’ he said, before again talking up his recent trip to El Salvador.

‘I was just down there, as you said, I met with him. The [US] embassy [and] the Trump administration [are] doing nothing right now to comply with that court order,’ he claimed.

The pontiff had cited contempt being ‘stirred up’ against such figures during his Easter address Sunday – leading Hollen to claim the late 88-year-old had been ‘a pope for all of humanity [who] focused on the most vulnerable.

‘What they’re doing is trying to change the subject – as if you can’t comply with the Constitution and fight gang violence.

‘I’ve been fighting MS-13 longer than Donald Trump probably ever uttered the words,’ he continued, again relishing in his own self-perceived accomplishments.  

‘I put together an anti-gang task force in this Washington region — Maryland, Washington, Virginia,’ he said – weeks after that same task force charged two MS-13 members who had been operating in the state of Maryland for years, for murder.

The unnamed victim, feds said in a statement, was targeted by suspects, Manuel Erazo Alvarado and Erick Guillen Pleitez, so that they could ‘maintain and increase their positions in the’ well-known, worldwide gang.

‘So, the notion that fighting gangs requires that you shred the Constitution and deny people’s rights,’ Hollen said, ‘[that’s] just the dangerous spin that Donald Trump is putting on all this.

‘The whole point here that we’re making is that the Trump administration needs to respect the Constitution of the United States,’ he ultimately concluded.

‘When you threaten the rights of one man like Abrego Garcia, take away the rights of one man like Abrego Garcia, you threaten the rights for everybody.’

‘And on natural rights,’ he continued. ‘On the right of everybody to be free under the law.’ ‘In this case, the Trump administration is flouting the law because the Supreme Court on a 9-0 ruling said that they had to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia,’ he said

The senator proceeded to talk up his recent trip to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia, one he has repeatedly framed as an ‘accomplishment’

‘The president of El Salvador thinks tonight is a time to be mocking this, this prisoner, that he’s holding there – and mocking this process,’ he said, after Nayib Bukele’s made light of criticisms of conditions Abrego Garcia has been kept in by sharing a snap of Hollen and Abrego Garcia’s subtropical summit.

‘But his words are going to be used in court now in this case, as are Donald Trump’s,’ O’Donnell continued, arguing the illegal immigrant is entitled to due process.

‘And they are going to be helpful to Mister Abrego Garcia,’ he asserted.

‘Because what the president of El Salvador has demonstrated today is just how easy it is to get this person out of El Salvador, just how easy it is to control his movements.’

President Bukele continues to maintain he does not possess the political power to return Garcia to the US. 

‘This will all be part of the case,’ O’Donnell continued, delivering his rant with contempt. 

‘[What] the Trump team has done to [Garcia] – they snatched him out of his car with his autistic five year old child watching from the back seat, and then [they] sent him to a deliberately cruel and unusual prison in El Salvador, where he may remain. 

‘The [US] government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons, without the semblance of due process – that is the foundation of our Constitutional order.

Hollen’s visit, meanwhile, represented a broader Democratic bid to bring attention to the case surrounding Garcia and his detention, as a means to challenge Trump. Democrats – much to the ridicule of conservatives – continue to use the case to criticize the conservative

‘The government asserts that [Garcia] is a terrorist and a member of MS-13,’ O’Donnell – once a writer for the West Wing – went on. ‘Perhaps, but perhaps not. 

‘Regardless, he is still entitled to due process,’ he continued, before painting Hollen as a political hero who brought attention toward injustice. 

‘It seems to me the courts are going to be very interested in what the senator was able to accomplish – versus what they would expect the president to be able to accomplish here,’

Any such accomplishment remains to be seen, and the government has conceded that Garcia was mistakenly deported. 

He is still an illegal immigrant, though has not been charged with any crime. 

Hollen’s visit, meanwhile, represented a broader Democratic bid to bring attention to the case surrounding Garcia and his detention, as a means to challenge the Trump administration’s aggressive approach to illegal immigration.

When asked at the White House Thursday whether he would consider bringing Garcia back to the US, Trump said, ‘I’m not involved.

‘You’ll have to speak to the lawyers, the DOJ,’ he said, as Democrats – much to the ridicule of conservatives – continue to use the case to criticize the conservative.