VAN HOLLEN’S FOLLY

BY JOHN E. O’CONNOR

I don’t care what the Supreme Court ruled. I don’t care what a local judge said or how many district courts tried to rationalize it. What I care about is the bigger picture—the one no one in Washington seems willing to confront.

A sitting U.S. Senator, Chris Van Hollen, is on a taxpayer-funded trip to El Salvador. Why? To advocate for a man who is not a U.S. citizen. A man who entered this country illegally. A man who two separate courts identified as a member of MS-13, one of the most violent and sadistic gangs in the world. This same man had a permanent domestic violence protective order issued against him by a judge in Prince George’s County after threatening his wife. And this is the man a United States Senator flies across the globe to defend?

Let’s be clear: this man is not a constituent. He is not a victim. He is a criminal alien. And yet, he is receiving the full weight of advocacy from someone elected to represent us.

Meanwhile, real Americans—law-abiding, hard-working citizens—are being ignored. Veterans like myself are left waiting four years to have a medical exam reviewed by the FAA. I fought in combat. I was wounded in service to this country. And I’ve been buried in red tape ever since. The only help we’re offered from our elected officials comes in an email that says, “We reached out, and there’s nothing we can do.”

We’re not just being ignored—we’re being abandoned.

Seniors struggle to navigate a collapsing Social Security system. Mental health services are failing. Substance abuse programs are underfunded. Families are watching their communities fall apart. And what do we get from our leaders? Silence. Shrugs. Excuses.

But let a violent gang member—not a citizen—come under threat of deportation, and suddenly, there’s urgency. Suddenly, there’s a flight to El Salvador. Suddenly, thousands of your taxpayer dollars are poured into overseas advocacy. Flights, staff, security—all paid for by you and me while we sit here waiting for someone to give a damn about our citizens.

Here’s the brutal truth: it costs nothing for a Senator to walk down the street to the FAA and demand answers for a veteran. It costs nothing to show up for the people who elected you. But they won’t do it—because there’s no glory in it. No headlines. No cameras. No applause.

Helping veterans? That’s not flashy. Helping seniors? Not newsworthy. So we get ignored—treated like afterthoughts, like background noise. Like we’re just commoners in their political theater.

And let me tell you something: I don’t want to hear any of this “Republican versus Democrat” nonsense. This is bigger than party politics. This is about basic decency. It’s about constitutional responsibility. It’s about values. And right now, it’s evident that the people we elected to serve us have forgotten who they serve.

They don’t see citizens. They see statistics. They don’t see veterans. They see liabilities. They don’t see constituents. They see obstacles between them and their next photo op.

The man Senator Van Hollen is defending doesn’t deserve the intervention of a U.S. Senator. He deserves to be deported. And Americans deserve to be defended—fought for—with the same level of urgency, if not more.

So don’t tell me nothing can be done. Don’t tell me your hands are tied. Because if you can fly across the world to interfere in another country’s legal system for a violent gang member, you can damn well lift a finger to help the very people who built this country, served this country, and sacrificed for this country.

The system isn’t broken; it’s been hijacked. Until our elected public servants remember who they work for, we will continue to suffer at the hands of a government that has traded its citizens for soundbites.

It’s shameful. It’s disgusting. And I am sick to my stomach every time I see it.

God help us.