This comes after Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) made the trip last week.
Four more Democratic lawmakers have traveled to El Salvador to push for the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the man at the center of a high-profile deportation by the Trump administration.
U.S. Reps. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.), Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) arrived in El Salvador on Sunday.
This comes after Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) made the trip last week.
In a news conference Monday in El Salvador’s capital, the four representatives and Abrego Garcia’s lawyer said they were in El Salvador “demanding his safe return home.” The group said they hoped to continue to pressure authorities for his release, and that their petition to meet with Abrego Garcia was denied.
Frost said the representatives were in El Salvador to “build off the work” of Van Hollen and that they were inquiring about where Abrego Garcia was being held and under what conditions.
Chris Newman, a lawyer representing the deportee, added that his primary concern was Abrego Garcia’s access to counsel.
“We know nothing of Mr. Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts since the staged photo op on Thursday with Senator Van Hollen,” Newman said. “We demand to immediately know where he is and to have access to him.”
The White House press office issued a statement Monday that said the past week “has shown Americans everything they need to know about Democrats’ priorities.”
The White House accused the representatives of “picking up their party’s mantle of prioritizing a deported illegal immigrant MS-13 gang member over the Americans they represent.”
MS-13 and other international criminal gangs were designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. government earlier this year. Illegal immigrants who are suspected and confirmed members of such groups were prioritized for deportation by the Trump administration in March.
Van Hollen said he met with Abrego Garcia last week to check on his well-being on behalf of his family and to push for his release. The lawmaker was initially denied a visit with Abrego Garcia, but the Maryland senator was ultimately granted permission to talk with him and shared a photo of their meeting.
Van Hollen said he was the first lawmaker to visit El Salvador on this case and suggested there would be more.
Earlier this month, Reps. Garcia and Frost sent a letter to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-Ky.) to request authorization for a congressional delegation to visit the maximum-security prison in Tecoluca where Abrego Garcia was held.
After Comer rejected their request, the lawmakers planned their own independent trip.
According to Comer, an official congressional delegation trip for this purpose would be a waste of taxpayer money.
“Your request to visit a foreign MS-13 gang member in El Salvador on taxpayer dollars … has been denied,” the Oversight Committee wrote in a post on X sharing Comer’s response to the request.
“Please respect the money of the American people,” Comer said in his letter.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the United States from a Salvadoran prison. The Trump administration initially said it had made an “administrative error” in deporting him to his home country despite a 2019 order preventing his deportation there, where the court determined that he would face danger.
Lawyers for the federal government said in court last week that they don’t have the power to secure Abrego Garcia’s release because he is in the custody of a foreign country. El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has publicly stated that he has no intention of returning him.
Abrego Garcia was in the United States illegally and had a deportation order before the 2019 court order determined that he would face danger in El Salvador.
According to documents released by the U.S. Justice Department, two separate judges and the Prince George’s County Police Department had found that he was affiliated with the MS-13 gang based in part on “a past proven and reliable source” who said that Garcia was an “active member of MS-13 with the Westerns clique” with the rank of “Chequeo.” Garcia was also wearing clothing known to be affiliated with gang membership, according to the documents.
He was also questioned by the Tennessee Highway Patrol and suspected of being involved in human trafficking.
According to White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, even if Abrego Garcia was returned to the United States, “he would immediately be deported again.”
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
From NTD News