Four House Democrats travel to El Salvador to push for Kilmar Abrego Garcia's release
Four House Democrats travel to El Salvador to push for Kilmar Abrego Garcia's release Reps. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., and Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., landed in El Salvador on Monday morning.
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Sen. Van Hollen back El Salvador after meeting with Abrego Garcia
Sen. Chris Van Hollen returned from El Salvador after meeting Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported by the Trump administration.
'As Members of Congress it is our responsibility to hold the President and Administration accountable for defying the constitution of the United States,' Rep. Max Frost said.
WASHINGTON − Four House Democrats traveled to El Salvador to demand the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man wrongly deported to the Central American country in what the White House initially acknowledged was an 'administrative error.'
Reps. Robert Garcia, D-California, Maxwell Frost, D-Florida, Yassamin Ansari, D-Arizona, and Maxine Dexter, D-Oregon, landed in El Salvador early April 21, according to a news release.
The lawmakers will meet with officials at the U.S. Embassy there to advocate for Abrego Garcia's release and to inquire about other men in El Salvador who were transferred from the United States, according to a source familiar with the plans.
'As Members of Congress it is our responsibility to hold the President and Administration accountable for defying the constitution of the United States,' Frost said in a statement. 'Donald Trump and ICE are not above the law. Today it's Kilmar, but tomorrow it could be anyone else. We cannot and will not let Donald Trump get away with this.'
Their trip comes on the heels of Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen's journey to El Salvador last week, where he met with Abrego Garcia, who had been transferred from the notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, to a prison with better conditions.
Van Hollen also met with Salvadoran Vice President Félix Ulloa to push for Abrego Garcia's return.
Garcia and Frost had sent a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer, R-Kentucky, on April 15 requesting an official congressional delegation to 'conduct a welfare check' on Abrego Garcia and detainees held at CECOT.
Comer denied their request and said in a follow-up letter that he would 'not approve a single dime of taxpayer funds for use on the excursion' they requested.
'Chair Comer denied our request for an official trip to El Salvador to advocate for due process and the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. Pretty shameful,' Frost wrote on X. 'Good thing I don't need Comer's permission to get on a plane.'
The trip is not being financed by taxpayer dollars, according to a news release. The four members will "also advocate for other detainees who are being held without due process," the release says.
The Trump administration says Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang; a federal judge discounted that claim last month. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has called Abrego Garcia a "terrorist." Abrego Garcia has not been charged with a crime in the United States, and a federal immigration judge had barred the government from deporting him.
The Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to "facilitate" the release of Abrego Garcia. The Justice Department has argued it does not have the authority to return him to the United States because he is in a foreign country.
'While Donald Trump continues to defy the Supreme Court, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held illegally in El Salvador after being wrongfully deported,' Rep. 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.'
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