House GOP blocks Democrat delegation visit to deportee in El Salvador
Rep. James Comer, of Kentucky, sent letters to two House members telling them they can "spend your own money" to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was deported on March 15.
Robert Garcia of California and Maxwell Frost of Florida wrote to Comer on Tuesday "requesting authorization" for an official trip. They said also want to check on others held there and invited Republicans to make the trip to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca.
The congressmen sought Congressional Member Delegations for U.S. Customs and Border Protection detention site. The Democrats note official trips afford them more oversight and security resources.
"If you also wish to meet with him, you can spend your own money," Comer wrote Friday in a letter obtained by Axios. "But I will not approve a single dime of taxpayer funds for use on the excursion you have requested."
Comer accused Abrego Garcia of being an MS-13 gang member, though the government has not given proof of his membership. The U.S. Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration must "facilitate" his return to Maryland because he wasn't given due process before being deported.
U.S. Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Oregon, also plans to travel to El Salvador to demand the release of him. Dexter, a member of committees on land resources and veterans affairs, didn't disclose whether she was paying for the trip.
"A legal U.S. resident has had his due process rights ripped away and is now being held indefinitely in a foreign prison," Dexter said in a news release Friday. "This is not just one family's nightmare; it is a constitutional crisis that should outrage every single one of us. I will travel to El Salvador to confront this crisis head on. Our constitutional rights are on the line."
Earlier, House Homeland Security Committee chairman Mark Green of Tennessee refused a similar request from Delia Ramirez of Illinois.
Republicans sent their own delegation to El Salvador earlier this week, led by Jason Smith, of Missouri, the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee.
At least seven House Republicans were present on the trip, according to a photo posted to X by the U.S. Embassy in El Salvador.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on March 26 also toured the Terrorism Confinement Center, where the Trump administration is paying El Salvador to house deportees.
In the letter, Comer wrote that Garcia and Frost "displayed active hostility for over two years toward the Committee's oversight of the Biden Border Crisis and the consequences of millions of illegal aliens entering the country, yet now, you are seeking travel at Committee expense to meet with foreign gang members."
U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen, a Democrat in Maryland, made his own trip to El Salvador this week.
After initially being denied by the President Nayib Bukele on Thursday, he met with his constitutent at a hotel. Van Hollen said he was informed by Abrego Garcia he had been moved nine days earlier to another prison about 39 miles away in Santa Ana.
Sen. Cory Booker, a Democrat from New Jersey, has also said that he wants to go to El Salvador.
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