A quartet of House Democrats arrived in El Salvador on Monday morning to push for the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to the Central American country.
Democratic Reps. Robert Garcia (Calif.), Maxwell Frost (Fla.), Yassamin Ansari (Ariz.) and Maxine Dexter (Ore.) said they were in El Salvador to advocate for Abrego Garcia’s release and put a spotlight on what they say is President Trump’s noncompliance with a Supreme Court order directing his administration to “facilitate” the Maryland man’s return. They also said they would urge the release of other detainees.
“While Donald Trump continues to defy the Supreme Court, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held illegally in El Salvador after being wrongfully deported,” Garcia said in a statement. “That is why we’re here – to remind the American people that kidnapping immigrants and deporting them without due process is not how we do things in America.”
“We are demanding the Trump Administration abide by the Supreme Court decision and give Kilmar and the other migrants mistakenly sent to El Salvador due process in the United States,” he added.
The group noted that their visit was not being paid for by taxpayer dollars, after House Oversight and Government Reform Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) denied a request from Garcia and Frost for the trip to be an official congressional delegation. The House is on recess this week and returns to Washington next Monday.
Abrego Garcia was protected from removal to El Salvador by an immigration judge in 2019, and the Justice Department has said in court his removal was due to an “administrative error.” The administration has since, however, doubled down on its argument that Abrego Garcia deserved to be deported.
While numerous Democrats have said they plan to keep pressuring Salvadoran officials for Abrego Garcia’s release, it’s a high-stakes visit as Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has said he will not return Abrego Garcia, echoing the Trump administration in calling him a “terrorist.”
The trip is the second to El Salvador by U.S. Democratic lawmakers after Sen. Chris Van Hollen (Md.) last week secured a meeting with Abgreo Garcia.
Salvadoran officials initially told Van Hollen that they would be unable to arrange a meeting with the mistakenly deported man, saying they would need more time to organize a visit to the prison he was being held in. They also rebuffed a phone call, saying the request would need to come from the U.S. Embassy.
The senator the next day then proceeded to drive to CECOT, only to be stopped by Salvadoran military members who said they had been ordered to stop him from reaching the prison.
Bukele later reversed course, having Abrego Garcia transported to Van Hollen’s hotel for a meeting.
Abrego Garcia arrived with a hat covering his shaved head, and Van Hollen said Salvadoran officials tried to have the two meet poolside at the hotel.
Beyond the meeting, Van Hollen said he learned several key details on his trip.
He said the Salvadoran government said Abrego Garcia has no criminal record in the country, while Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa cited U.S. funding as the rationale for keeping him.
“His answer was that the Trump administration is paying the government of El Salvador to keep him at CECOT,” Van Hollen said after their Wednesday meeting.
Van Hollen also said embassy staff on the ground had received no directive to take any action to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return — something he said was a violation of the Supreme Court order directing the Trump administration to do so.
Van Hollen said he also told Salvadoran officials that Abrego Garcia’s case was of great interest to lawmakers.
“I may be the first United States senator to visit El Salvador on this issue, but there will be more, and there will be more members of Congress coming,” he said last week.
