Reps. Robert Garcia (D-CA), Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) and Maxine Dexter (D-OR) arrived in El Salvador on Monday.
Their trip follows that of Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD), who went to El Salvador last week to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran immigrant who was deported from the U.S. The Senator said the “main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar,” and he spoke with his wife, Jennifer, about his condition.
Monday’s trip was meant “to pressure the Trump Administration to abide by a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia” per a joint press release from the visiting lawmakers.
“The Congressional members are in El Salvador to bring attention to President Trump’s illegal defiance of the binding and unanimous Supreme Court decision in Noem v. Abrego Garcia that demands the Administration facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return and due process in the United States,” they wrote.
The high court’s decision was “per curiam,” which does not necessarily mean it was unanimous. “Per curiam” decisions are made without rendering written opinions, as Justice Sonia Sotomayor offered merely a statement along with Justices Elena Kagan and Kentanji Brown Jackson.
Rep. Garcia said he is going on the trip to “remind” Americans of the hundreds of other illegal immigrants who were also sent to El Salvador, suggesting that they did not receive “due process.”
Ansari cited her history with her parents fleeing Iran when its citizens were “disappeared” as her reason for flying to El Salvador.
“I refuse to sit back and watch it happen here, too. Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s illegal abduction and President Trump’s complete disregard of due process and a unanimous Supreme Court ruling are deeply disturbing,” Yassamin Ansari said. “If this can happen to Mr. Abrego Garcia, it can happen to any of us.”
Dexter alleged “his due process rights [were] ripped away.” At the time of his deportation, Abrego Garcia had a “withholding of removal” order, which prohibited him from being sent to El Salvador. The administration has said it was following through on a deportation order that remained active even after Abrego Garcia received his new status.
“This is not just one family’s nightmare; it is a constitutional crisis that should outrage every single one of us,” Dexter said in a press release. “Our constitutional rights are on the line.”
ICE officials confirmed that these immigrants were deported under Code Title 8, which allows federal authorities to quickly remove certain migrants who cross into the country illegally. They were also deported under the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 law, which allows the president to remove migrants immediately if they come from invading countries in times of war.
“Donald Trump and ICE are not above the law,” Frost said. “We cannot and will not let Donald Trump get away with this.”
Garcia and Frost attempted to classify the trip as a Congressional Delegation, or CODEL, to House Oversight Committee Chairman James Comer (R-KY), who denied the request. Comer told the representatives that if they “wish to meet with” Abrego Garcia they would have to spend their “own money.”
“But I will not approve a single dime of taxpayer funds for use on the excursion you have requested,” Comer said.
JOHN KENNEDY ADMITS KILMAR ABREGO GARCIA’S DEPORTATION WAS ‘A SCREWUP’
El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele committed to keeping Abrego Garcia, as the Trump administration classified him as a member of MS-13.
However, the Salvadorian is no longer in the terrorism confinement center, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, referred to as the CECOT. Instead, he was moved to another undisclosed prison.