More Dems work to join Sen. Van Hollen in El Salvador to push for alleged gang member's return to US
Several more congressional Democrats have made statements or issued requests to leadership to travel to El Salvador in hopes of bringing imprisoned deportee and accused MS-13 member Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to Maryland.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., remained in the Central American country as of Thursday morning, after Salvadoran Vice President Felix Ulloa rejected his entreaties to contact or free the alleged gang member on Wednesday.
A representative for Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., confirmed to Fox News Digital on Thursday that the freshman lawmaker would be taking a trip to El Salvador to essentially aid Van Hollen's efforts.
"Kilmar Abrego Garcia should be home in Maryland right now," Ansari said in a separate statement. "His illegal abduction and the subsequent complete dismissal of the Supreme Court ruling is deeply disturbing. Our rights shouldn't be revoked to propagate Trump's authoritarian agenda. This is a constitutional crisis."
"He's already said that he's ready and willing to illegally deport 'home-growns' and American citizens. If this can happen to Mr. Garcia, it can happen to any of us. My parents fled an authoritarian regime in Iran where people 'disappeared' – I refuse to sit back and watch it happen here, too. That's why I plan to join my colleagues in traveling to El Salvador to visit Mr. Garcia and make sure Trump's war on our Constitution and due process stops here."
Reps. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., and Robert Garcia, D-Calif., also wrote to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., requesting a former CODEL (congressional delegation) authorization to visit Tecoluca, El Salvador, where the infamous El Salvadoran mega prison "Terrorism Confinement Center" (CECOT) is located.
"Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national legally living and working in Maryland, was subject to a 2019 withholding order from an immigration judge prohibiting his removal to El Salvador," Frost and Garcia wrote.
"A Congressional delegation would allow Committee Members to conduct a welfare check on Mr. Abrego Garcia, as well as others held at CECOT."
Additionally, Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., is reportedly planning to travel to CECOT, according to reports from Politico and Axios. His office did not respond to a Fox News Digital inquiry.
Fox News Digital reached out to Comer's office for comment, and whether other lawmakers had contacted him seeking CODEL authorization.
"Squad" member Rep. Delia Ramirez, D-Ill., also wrote to House Homeland Security Committee Chairman Mark Green, R-Tenn., demanding her own CODEL to El Salvador, "given that the Administration's use of CECOT for illegal and unconstitutional deportations is rife with 'administrative errors.'"
While not party to the letter to Comer, Ansari tweeted Monday that "we need answers now" from either government.
She said she is ready to join Van Hollen – and Frost and Garcia if they go – to "demand" the man's release.
Rep. Becca Balint, D-Vt., also suggested to Axios that travel to El Salvador may be necessary.
"We have to do similar kinds of things for the others who are victims of this dystopian attack on our Constitutional rights. This president is dangerous and we can't let this go," she said.
Meanwhile, at least two Republicans have also traveled to CECOT, albeit for different reasons.
Rep. Riley Moore, R-W.Va., tweeted a photo from the prison, saying he just finished a tour and that many inmates were "extremely violent" recent U.S.-deportees.
"I leave now even more determined to support President Trump's efforts to secure our homeland," Moore said.
House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Jason Smith, R-Mo., appeared to comment on Van Hollen's trip in his own post from the prison, writing:
"It is unconscionable that Democrats in Congress are urging the release of more foreign criminals back into our country."
Homeland Security released new documents this week that it says definitively prove Abrego Garcia, who is imprisoned at CECOT after his deportation from the U.S., is a member of the notorious MS-13 gang, which his lawyers deny.
Abrego Garcia also allegedly has a record of being a "violent" repeat wife beater, according to records filed in a Prince George's County, Maryland, district court by his wife.
Fox News Digital reached out to Booker, Frost, Balint, Ramirez and Garcia for further comment.
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