By MATT BROWN, Associated Press
WASHINGTON (AP) — Four House Democratic lawmakers have traveled to El Salvador to call attention to the plight of a man the Trump administration deported to a Salvadoran prison and has refused to help return — even after the Supreme Court ruled that it was the government’s duty to do so.
Reps. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, Maxine Dexter of Oregon, Maxwell Frost of Florida and Robert Garcia of California arrived in the Central American nation on Sunday to investigate the condition of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had lived in the United States for more than a decade. The Trump administration deported him, a move that administration officials have said in court filings was erroneous.
But despite a Supreme Court ordering the Trump administration to help facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, the administration has said it has no power to bring him back, a choice being scrutinized by federal courts as potentially in violation of judicial rulings.
“To see the Trump administration so blatantly and egregiously defy the Supreme Court and have no regard for due process is extremely alarming to me,” Ansari said in an interview. “Even with all of the illegal actions we’ve seen over the last couple of months, I think this is the one that terrifies me the most when it comes to the future of our democracy.”
The trip comes after one last week
The quartet’s trip comes after Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland traveled to El Salvador last week and met Abrego Garcia and Salvadoran officials. Abrego Garcia had lived in Maryland with his wife and three children, who are American citizens, before he was deported on March 15.
Abrego Garcia’s protected legal status prohibited him from being deported to El Salvador. He was deported on one of three planes filled with alleged migrant gang members.
Garcia said he and Frost sent a letter last week to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., requesting that an official delegation go to El Salvador to investigate Abrego Garcia’s condition and push for his return, but received no response. Ansari said more Democrats would be traveling to El Salvador in the coming days and weeks.
“Those of us in the House who are here greatly admire and support what Sen. Van Hollen did,” Garcia said. Of Abrego Garcia, he said, “His family knew that he was safe, but he’s not home, and so we’ve got to continue the pressure, and we’ve got to ensure that the rule of law in the United States is allowed.”
Justice Department lawyers said in court last week that they have no power to advance Abrego Garcia’s return because he is in a foreign country’s custody. Administration officials also claimed in public comments that Abrego Garcia was engaged in human trafficking and terrorism and therefore correctly deported. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said that if Abrego Garcia were to return to the U.S., “he would immediately be deported again.”
Van Hollen unsuccessfully lobbied the Salvadoran government for Abrego Garcia’s return. He told NBC’s “Meet the Press” on Sunday that the United States is facing a “constitutional crisis” if the Trump administration does not follow the Supreme Court’s order to push to bring Abrego Garcia back.
It’s a warning Democrats are increasingly amplifying. Rather than debate President Donald Trump’s hardline immigration policy or the merits of the administration’s invocation of national security to carry out deportations, Democratic lawmakers are zeroing in on the issue of due process, with some noting that the Supreme Court and lower court federal judges found Abrego Garcia was deported without a proper hearing.
“The government’s argument, moreover, implies that it could deport and incarcerate any person, including U. S. citizens, without legal consequence, so long as it does so before a court can intervene,” Justice Sonia Sotomayor wrote in the court’s ruling in Abrego Garcia’s case.
Said Garcia: “They’re trying to demonize him, and we’re not here to defend him. He deserves due process, and everyone deserves due process. … What he did or may have done, that has to be decided by a judge.”
Republicans have been going, too — for a different reason
Several House Republicans have visited El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, the prison where Abergo Garcia is being held, and lauded the facility for what they view as El Salvador’s tough-on-crime policies. Republican senators and governors have defended Abrego Garcia’s detention as part of a broader crackdown on illegal immigration. But at least one Republican senator called the administration’s deportation of Abrego Garcia a mistake.
“The administration won’t admit it. But this was a screw-up,” said Sen. John Kennedy, a Louisiana Republican, on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
During a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office, Trump remarked that “homegrown” lawbreakers should be deported to prisons in the Central American country and urged Bukele to “build about five more places” like the notorious penitentiary where Abrego Garcia is now held.
Congressional Republicans have so far shown little interest in negotiating the dispute between the president and the judiciary. Democrats, who are in the minority in both chambers of Congress, have little leverage to pressure the White House. But Abrego Garcia’s case has become both an alarming and galvanizing case inside the party.
Democrats “have the power to draw attention to this issue, to keep the pressure up,” Ansari said. “That’s why you know some of us are going, and so many members will be going. Because this is about the future of our democracy and the future of due process as American citizens.”