Posted on 04/16/2025 4:34:47 AM PDT by MtnClimber
Democrat lawmakers from the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate are reportedly planning trips to El Salvador to seek the release of an alleged MS-13 gang member and bring him back to the United States where he lived illegally from 2012 until March 2025.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was among the hundreds of illegal immigrants—a large percentage of them MS-13 and Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang members—deported to El Salvador last month under the Alien Enemies Act.
On Monday, Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) reportedly sent a letter to El Salvador’s ambassador to the United States asking for a meeting with the President Nayib Bukele while he was in Washington D.C.
El Salvador’s President Nayib Armando Bukele told reporters during a meeting with President Donald Trump later in the day that he “of course” would not “smuggle” Kilmar Abrego Garcia back into the United States.
“How can I return him to the United States?” the El Salvadoran president said. “Like I smuggle him into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do that.”
Van Hollen told reporters later Monday that he believed Bukele would “reconsider when he understands the full story of this illegal detention.”
He went on to claim, despite Garcia’s 2019 deportation order, that the alleged human trafficker was a United States citizen.
“I don’t think he wants to essentially be the president who’s kidnapped the United States citizen,” Van Hollen said.
The senator also said in a statement that if Garcia was not in the United States by “midweek,” he would “travel to El Salvador this week to check on his condition and discuss his release.”
Several Democrat lawmakers have expressed interest in joining him on the trip.
“We must all stand as a united front against the kidnapping and illegal detention of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said on X, tagging Van Hollen. “Senator, I am willing to join you and help Organize other members of the House to do the same.”
Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) shared Frost’s post and said she was “ready to join” her colleagues in traveling to El Salvador to demand Garcia’s release.
Reps. Garcia and Frost have written to House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) asking him to authorize an official congressional delegation or “CODEL” to El Salvador, Axios reported.
Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), according to Axios, is also thinking about leading a trip to El Salvador and “is still trying to iron out details of timing and who will join.”
When he was detained in 2019, Garcia claimed he had to flee El Salvador as a teenager to escape gang violence. At the time, both the original immigration judge and the Board of Immigration Appeals found there was sufficient evidence that he was a member of MS-13 and, as such, a danger to the public. But an immigration judge subsequently barred Garcia from being returned to El Salvador, saying it was “more likely than not that he would be persecuted” there.
White House Homeland Security advisor Stephen Miller argued Monday that the judge’s 2019 order barring Garcia from being deported no longer applied because President Trump designated MS-13 a foreign terrorist group in January 2025, making him ineligible for immigration relief.
“Now some have said, well, but he had a thing called a ‘withholding order,’” he told Fox News host Bill Hemmer. “A withholding order means you’ve been ordered deported, but an immigration judge is saying you cannot go back to a particular country. Here’s the thing: if you are a member of a foreign terrorist organization, you cannot have a withholding order. Since he’s in MS-13, there is no withholding order.”
Miller also pointed out that the gang he claimed had persecuted him had been eradicated, so it was no longer dangerous for him to live in El Salvador. “Furthermore, that gang he is accused of being persecuted by doesn’t exist anymore in El Salvador! The 18th Street gang is GONE,” he said.
During the White House meeting with Bukele, Miller insisted that Garcia’s deportation order was valid, and his presence in the United States was unlawful.
He contended that Maryland District Court Judge Paula Xinis had inappropriately “tried to tell the administration that they had to kidnap a citizen of El Salvador and fly him back here.”
“That issue was raised to the Supreme Court and the Supreme Court said the district court order was unlawful and stated clearly that neither the Secretary of State nor the president could be compelled by anybody to forcibly retrieve a citizen of El Salvador from El Salvador,” Miller told the White House reporters.
A legal expert confirmed to CNN’s Jake Tapper on Tuesday that Miller’s interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling was correct.
“The Supreme Court appeared to defer to the executive branch given that this is an international matter, and you see, yes, it does look a little bit like a semantic game, but they are playing within the bounds of what the Supreme Court ruled,” CNN’s Chief legal correspondent Paula Reid said. “So no, they are not defying this order.”
Despite this, Van Hollen said Tuesday that if Bukele would not meet with him in Washington D.C., he will travel to El Salvador this week to “seek a meeting with the president or other government officials, because it is, it is absolutely unjust and illegal to have this Marylander detained one more day in a notorious prison in El Salvador.”
When asked for comment on the Democrats’ heroic efforts to bring back the illegal alien and alleged gang member, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said she found their priorities “mind boggling.”
“I think it’s atrocious that you have Democrats in Congress on Capitol Hill who swore an oath to protect their constituents and to serve them in Washington DC, are spending more time defending illegal immigrant gang members than their own constituents and law-abiding American citizens,” Leavitt said during the White House press briefing, Tuesday.
Leavitt reminded reporters that President Trump always puts Americans first and has repeatedly reached out to the victims of illegal immigrant criminals.
“Frankly, the words and the actions of the Democrat party prove that they could not care less about the American public and maybe if they did they’d see a bit higher approval ratings,” she added.
Trump’s spokeswoman also had harsh words for the media’s one-sided and inaccurate coverage of the issue.
“He is an MS-13 gang member,” she reiterated. “He was engaged in human trafficking, he illegally came into our country, and so deporting him back to El Salvador was always going to be the end result.”
Leavitt said the Trump administration had confirmed his gang affiliation, as had the president of El Salvador.
“So he went back to his home country where he will face consequences for his gang affiliation and his engagement in human trafficking,” she added. “I’m not sure what is so difficult for everyone in the media to understand, and it’s appalling, truly appalling, that there has been so much time covering this alleged human trafficker and this MS-13 gang member! It’s truly striking to me.”
“Something tells me the President of El Salvador has a surprise for these dipshits when they arrive.”
If this excellent adventure ever happens, it will be 100% for photo-ops and Dems propaganda.
Here is what President Nayib Armando Bukele should do. With some aids he greats our Congressional Poohbahs at the airport. He tells them that the airports best and most secured restaurant has been cleared out for their meeting. The congressmen must surrender all phones and electronic devices.
Our Congressmen never get further than there for this photo-ops excursion. The only photos they go home with are of an airport and a restaurant.
Upon re-entry to the US, every Dem who facilitated this (if it’s successful) should be arrested on charges of human smuggling.
They are going to apply great pressure on him. They will both threaten to blacklist El Salvador in future legislation when they are back in power, and offer to funnel millions of not billions his way if he sends that guy back.
chris and kilmar sittin’ in a tree....
i have money on
it looking like maxine trying to get into govt bldgs to protest DOGE
they will be standing around with no place to go
how is this not a violation of the Logan Act
arent they conducting foreign policy
Simply stop them at customs and send them back, stating El Salvador does not allow supporters of terrorism to enter the country.
Bukele will let them in
and send them thru an endless maze of meetings with low level bureaucrats
endless introductions and protocol that leads to nothing
Preventing them from deplaning on a hot, Salvadoran tarmac in a putrid, humid aircraft for 4-6 hours until refueling & clearance to depart are granted would be simply magnificent.
I’m betting Bukele refuses to meet with them. Give them the ultimate snub and send them back to the US in humiliating fashion.
So this trip will be a stop on their way to the Middle East to free the 5 American hostages held by Hamas?
“Hopefully, a jail cell at CECOT....never to be seen or heard from ever again.”
No. Incarcerate them for breaking El Salvador laws and then Bukele can say after a week it was his mistake and return the politicians to the US.
Make it like Jonestown.
How about a Trump EO word for word reaffirmation of the Logan Act with the intent to apply it to situations like this after they go?
This stunt is so stupid though and it would be a shame to block it.
A group of leftist Democrats pleading with Trump to come rescue them would be delicious.
This is pure grandstanding. They will go there and give speeches for the cameras. They will then come home and scream outrage. Pure theater. Like AOC standing in front of a fence and crying over an empty field.
Rhetorical question: Who will be paying for these farcical excursions?
Look in the mirror.
I think you can guess. You, me and everyone reading this thread.
They’re going to return empty-handed, blaming Trump for strong-arming the Salvadorans.
I hope any Marylanders who mourn the death of Rachel Morin write to Senator D*ck Head (Christopher Van Hollen, Jr.) and any other Democrats who want to go down to El Salvador for the MS13 Gang Members. I hope the Justice Department is monitoring the Senator’s bank accounts for contributions from MS-13.
I hope their Bank Accounts are being investigated for illegal contributions.
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