VAN HOLLEN BLOCKED FROM MEETING WITH ABREGO GARCIA IN EL SALVADOR: Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, on Wednesday tried and failed to secure a meeting in El Salvador with Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant and Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration and remains imprisoned in his native country. Robert Jimison/The New York Times.
- “If you listen to President Trump and the Trump administration, you would think that Mr. Abrego Garcia is part of MS13. But the courts have not found that,” Van Hollen said, in this 1 minute Youtube video. Staff/The New York Times.
- Van Hollen said he met with U.S. Embassy officials as well as El Salvador’s vice president, Félix Ulloa, who denied his request to meet or speak with Abrego García. Ulloa refused to release Abrego García or to allow Van Hollen to meet with him or speak to him by phone, Van Hollen said, although Ulloa said the U.S. Embassy might be able to arrange a phone call. Theodoric Meyer/The Washington Post.
- Lawmakers, legal experts and advocates are continuing the fight to push for the return of Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego García, who was mistakenly deported to CECOT, El Salvador’s most notorious prison, and has not been heard from for over a month. Jade Tran, Tolu Talabi and Jess Daninhirsch of Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter.
MORE DETAILS OF ABREGO GARCIA’s LIFE, CASE EMERGE: Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s story begins in his native El Salvador, but it’s become increasingly unclear where it will end. Trump administration officials said the deportation was a result of an administrative mistake but also said Abrego Garcia was deported last month based on an accusation from local police in Maryland that he was an MS-13 gang member. Abrego Garcia denied the allegation and was never charged with a crime, his attorneys have said. John-John Williams IV, Daniel Zawodny and Clara Longo de Freitas/The Baltimore Banner and Ben Finley/The Associated Press.
- Abrego Garcia is 29-year-oldfrom El Salvador who has been is married to a U.S. citizen and a father of three children. He was deported on March 15 from the United States in what the Trump administration called an “administrative error” and is currently in prison in El Salvador. Video above the article also adds detail. Blair Young and David Collins/WBAL-TV News.
HUNDREDS GATHER TO SUPPORT VAN HOLLEN’s EFFORT TO SECURE ABREGO GARCIA: Hundreds gathered in downtown Silver Spring on Wednesday to show support for Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), a Kensington resident, in his mission to return a mistakenly deported Prince George’s County man from El Salvador. Ginny Bixby/Bethesda Today.
100+ PROPERTY OWNERS DENY POWER COMPANY ACCESS TO THEIR LAND: More than 100 property owners in Central Maryland have refused to let power company PSEG onto their land to survey for the proposed Piedmont power line project, the company said in a legal filing Tuesday. In a 53-page filing with the U.S. District Court for Maryland — at least 14 pages of which is a listing of defendants — the New Jersey-based company is seeking an order that would let it access the properties with a minimum of 24 hours notice, and prohibit the property owners from interfering. Christine Condon/Maryland Matters.
FEDERAL CONTRACTOR LAYOFFS WILL BE A BLOW TO MARYLAND ECONOMY: Maryland federal contractor layoffs continue rising as the Trump administration makes major organizational changes and slashes federal agency budgets. More than 3,000 employees at companies that contract with the federal government have received layoff notifications this year, and these layoffs will have a major impact on the state’s economy. Natalie Weger and Olivia Borgula of Capital News Service/Maryland Reporter.
MOST EXPERTS CUT FROM NIH BOARDS ARE WOMEN, BLACK, HISPANIC: Thirty-eight of 43 experts cut last month from the boards that review the science and research that happens in laboratories at the National Institutes of Health in Bethesda are female, Black or Hispanic, according to an analysis by the chairs of a dozen of the boards. Carolyn Y. Johnson/The Washington Post.
BOARD CLEARS HUNDREDS OF CASES OVER NURSING DOCUMENTATION: The Maryland Board of Nursing said it has cleared almost all of the 259 nurses and nursing applicants who may have obtained a Maryland license using fraudulent documents from a scheme revealed in Florida more than two years ago. The board said that it found “no cause to take disciplinary action” against 205 of the Maryland cases linked to “Operation Nightingale,” a multistate investigation by federal official in 2023 of a Florida-based wire fraud scheme that provided bogus documentation of nursing credentials. Danielle Brown/Maryland Matters.
COMMANDERS, D.C. IN DISCUSSIONS OVER NEW D.C. STADIUM: The NFL’s Washington Commanders, which plays out of Landover in Maryland, and the District of Columbia are in discussions about a new football stadium in the nation’s capital, a person with knowledge of talks said Wednesday. Stephen Whyno/The Associated Press.
- The potential agreement comes after months of talks between the administration of Mayor Muriel E. Bowser (D) and the team, a process that gained significant momentum after D.C. gained control of the 174-acre waterfront RFK campus through an act of Congress in December. Sam Fortier, Jenny Gathright, Mark Maske, Nicki Jhabvala and Meagan Flynn/The Washington Post.
