Politics and views in the United States.

Sen. Van Hollen warns of a "constitutional crisis" after his El Salvador trip. Defense Sec. Hegseth shared military information in a second Signal chat. Former President Clinton calls for unity while commemorating the Oklahoma City bombing.

TRANSCRIPT

Welcome to 2025 Talks, where we're following our democracy in historic times.

My whole point here is if you deprive one man of his constitutional rights, you threaten the constitutional rights of everybody.

Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen says his recent El Salvador trip to check on a wrongfully deported man was about defending the right to due process, not about defending the man's reputation.

Van Hollen says the United States is in a constitutional crisis because the Trump administration is flouting the courts to detain and deport people.

The White House continues to allege Quilmar Abrego-Garcia is a member of MS-13, even though a police informant accused him of being a member of the gang in upstate New York, where Abrego-Garcia never actually lived.

Borders are Tom Homan says Van Hollen traveled at taxpayer expense to meet with someone in a group designated as a terrorist organization.

The day before he traveled, an illegal alien was arrested for murder, released to the streets rather than honoring a nice detainer in his very own state.

What concerns me is Van Hollen never went to the border the last four years on Joe Biden.

The administration is moving to each week withdraw social security numbers from thousands of migrants who've had their visas revoked.

Monica Sarimendo with the Virginia Coalition for Immigrant Rights says workers without legal status actually pay enormous amounts in taxes, about $25 billion a year to social security, but almost never collect the benefits.

Most immigrants are here because they want a better life for themselves and their families and want to contribute willingly and pay taxes.

For that, they need a social security number.

This month, the IRS will start sharing information on undocumented taxpayers with ICE.

Administration officials say that'll encourage them to self-deport.

The New York Times reports Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth shared detailed information about military strikes against the Iran-aligned Houthis in Yemen in a second signal chat, this time one he himself created.

The group chat included his wife, brother, and personal lawyer.

And like an earlier group chat started by the National Security Advisor, it detailed warplane flight schedules.

Five years after George Floyd's murder by a white police officer, a new study says police are killing people at a higher rate than any time in more than a decade.

Dom Campice with the Washington Coalition for Police Accountability says Black people continue to die at disproportionate rates.

We need people to step up to the plate.

We need legislators to work with us.

We need law enforcement to work with us.

And we can enact sensible alternatives to what's currently happening.

Finally, former President Bill Clinton called for unity during a speech on the 30th anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombing, the deadliest domestic terror attack in American history.

Commemorating the death of nearly 170 people, Clinton says people need to understand the pointless senselessness of political violence.

I'm Alex Gonzalez for Pacifica Network and Public News Service.

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