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.”
The media understands. But their role is to spin a narrative, as twisted as it is.
As far as the polticians mentioned, while I would love to see them get incarcerated in El Salvador, that would be used as propaganda in the US to 'rally the troops', with full support from the usual suspects in the media.
But if they try to conduct foreign policy, if I were President, I'd have charges of Logan Act violations slapped on them.
Probably best to treat them like the Tom Hanks character in 'The Terminal'.
They are actually going to El Salvador to kidnap a foreign citizen from their prison and force him to live here illegally? You’d figure a 20% approval rating would make them think twice about such actions.
“...Democrats’ heroic efforts...”
*ROFLMAO*
“Heroic”??????? Why wasn’t this from the Bee???
Anything, no matter how outrageous or anti-American, that appeases the radical left—is worth it to them. After all, it IS their base!
El Salvador would be performing another great service to America if they would let these dems into the prison, and then let them remain there for an indeterminate stay.
TROOPS AT SOUTHERN U.S. BORDER: Van Hollen and Colleagues Slam Trump Administration’s Decision to Extend Deployment Through January, Urge Secretary Mattis to Reverse Course Immediately
Is this your cocaine $inator?
“Is this your cocaine $inator?”
LOL, I wouldn’t put it past the Dems to try (not very hard, though) to smuggle some drugs in, get caught, and then say they were framed.
Literally, there is NOTHING that Democrats won’t do if they see a political payoff in it (including killing conservatives).
Nice! Now ICE can arrest some Congressional Democrats for trying to smuggle an illegal alien into our country.
Make sure to set bail at $1 billion each. Cash.
I swear lots of times it’s that old Soviet statement that we need to be defeated from within and modern democrats are doing just that by exploiting our laws, principles, and generosity.
If it’s illegal you can count on the democrats to protect it.
Democrat Democracy
HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA... this is too easy... They are all coordinating a prison break. lock them up. let them rot in El Salvador
Be a shame if the Salvadoran authorities found illegal drugs and child porn in the Dems’ bags...
There aint a effn thing they can do but come home a whine.
They dont have to be let in. And that is their point. Get detained and refused entry then make big stink over it.
With Cory Booker, aka, Spartacus, leading the charge, I’m sure they will cave! (sarc)
Tom Homan Vows to Prosecute Anyone Harboring Illegal Immigrants ‘To the Full Extent of the Law’ ,LOL
I think POTUS has much bigger carrots and sticks than some no-name Dim Senator from Maryland
i wouldn’t mess around inside El Salvador...that prison is no joke, and they have different laws down there. Better be careful little libs.
He’s not a US citizen and they want to just take him ,LOL
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