Van Hollen: For Your Courage, Thank You
- john raymond
- 2 minutes ago
- 2 min read
Some moments should never happen in a functioning democracy. Some stories should never have to be written. This is one of those stories—and I write it with both grief and gratitude in my chest.
Senator Chris Van Hollen has done what few in power have had the courage to do in recent days: he stood up. He demanded answers. And because of that, we now know something that until this moment had become an agonizing unknown—that a man wrongfully deported to a notorious prison in El Salvador is still alive.
Let me say this plainly: for your courage, Senator Van Hollen, thank you.
For what felt like an eternity, those of us watching from the outside had no idea whether he was dead or alive. This man—this American resident—was swept up, stripped of legal process, and dropped into one of the most brutal incarceration systems on the continent. Not because he was convicted of anything. Not because justice had run its course. But because the machinery of a lawless administration decided his rights didn’t matter.
They tried to make him disappear. And they almost succeeded.
Until Senator Van Hollen stepped in.
I am not ashamed to say it: when confirmation came through that this man was still alive, I cried real tears. That’s how deep the dread had run. That’s how dark the silence had become. There was no press release. No televised hearing. Just a black hole where due process should have been—and a growing terror that, like so many before him in authoritarian regimes, this man might vanish forever.
It doesn’t matter what crimes he may have been accused of. It doesn’t matter how easy it is to turn away, to justify, to move on. Because due process is not conditional. It is not reserved for the innocent or the popular. It is not suspended at the border. And it does not vanish when a president decides it’s politically inconvenient.
What was done to him was not just illegal—it was immoral. And what Senator Van Hollen did to pull even the smallest thread of light through that darkness? It matters.
There are moments when you ask yourself whether this country is still recognizable. Whether the foundations have already rotted beneath us. Whether the Constitution is just a ghost of what it once promised.
But then, someone like Van Hollen does what others won’t. He makes a call. He pushes for information. He uses the tools of office not to posture, but to protect.
And in doing so, he reminds us that the fight is not yet over.
So let this be said, now and forever: Every voice matters. Every act of courage counts.And every moment of resistance against lawless cruelty pushes back the dark.
Senator Van Hollen, you gave a family their first breath of hope.You gave a public a reason to believe the system hasn’t completely failed. And you gave the rest of us something even more powerful—a reason to keep fighting.
For that, we thank you.
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