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Posted on 04/24/2025 6:07:18 AM PDT by george76
"They can use their own personal credit cards," said one Republican chairman..
Republican leaders in the House have denied requests by Democrats to approve congressional trips to check on deportees at a mega prison in El Salvador.
With a post to X on Friday, House Oversight Chairman James Comer (R-KY) revealed a letter in which he told a pair of Democrats that he was rejecting their demand for authorization of a Congressional Member Delegation (CODEL) to visit the Terrorism Confinement Center or CECOT.
“If Democrats wish to travel to El Salvador and meet with a foreign illegal MS-13 gang member, they can spend their own money to do so,” Comer said in his social media post that showed a screenshot of the letter. “I will not approve a single dime of Oversight Committee taxpayer funds for use on the excursion Democrats have requested.”
...
Comer’s letter was addressed to Reps. Robert Garcia (D-CA) and Maxwell Frost (D-FL), who had sent a request to the chairman this week, saying they wanted to visit CECOT to check on the wellbeing of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant from El Salvador who Democrats say has been unlawfully deported and imprisoned, and others held at the prison. Reps. Garcia and Frost noted they would “gladly include” any Republicans who wanted to join.
Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old living in Maryland, was detained and deported to El Salvador last month despite a 2019 court order prohibiting him from being sent back to the country. His legal team has been fighting the federal government in a high-profile court to secure his return to the United States. The Trump administration accuses Abrego Garcia of being a member of MS-13, which has been designated as a foreign terror organization. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys deny that their client is part of the gang, but the government publicly released documents to substantiate the affiliation.
In his letter, Comer said Reps. Garcia and Frost requested that he approve from the oversight panel’s budget “official travel for you both to visit the country of El Salvador to meet with a foreign MS-13 gang member whose wife accused him of crimes and who is strongly suspected of human trafficking.”
The chairman was referring to a 2021 restraining order that shows Abrego Garcia was accused of beating his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, who now says they worked through the incident. He also pointed to a memo that said Abrego Garcia was pulled over in 2022 and suspected of human trafficking, although authorities say the Biden administration’s FBI opted not to make an arrest at that time.
Comer told Reps. Garcia and Frost it is “absurd that you both displayed active hostility for over two years toward the Committee’s oversight of the Biden Border crisis and the consequences of millions of illegal aliens entering the country, yet now, you are seeking travel at Committee expense to meet with foreign gang members.”
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) travelled to El Salvador this week and met with Abrego Garcia on Thursday evening. He claims Abrego Garcia is a “constituent” who endured an “abduction and unlawful deportation.”
...
Alluding to photos shared by El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, Comer quipped to Reps. Garcia and Frost they would be “pleased to know” Van Hollen “was photographed just yesterday in El Salvador enjoying margaritas garnished with cherry slices with the foreign gang member your letter references.”
Van Hollen, for his part, claimed neither he nor Abrego Garcia “touched” the drinks that appeared to be margaritas. Van Hollen also said Abrego Garcia told him that he had been moved to another detention center with “better” conditions.
The chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, Rep. Mark Green (R-TN), similarly rebuffed multiple Democrats pushing for a visit with Abrego Garcia.
“There is no excuse for Democrats to waste taxpayer dollars visiting and defending a transnational gang member and reported domestic abuser,” Green said in a statement on Thursday. “If Democrats care so much about defending this individual, they can use their own personal credit cards — not taxpayers’ money — to virtue-signal to their radical base.”
Yet another committee leader, House Ways and Means Chairman Jason Smith (R-MO), recently shared photos of a trip he took to CECOT.
...
“Thanks to President Trump, the CECOT prison in El Salvador, which is home to some of the country’s most vicious criminals, now includes illegal immigrants who broke into our country and committed violent acts against Americans,” Smith said. “It is unconscionable that Democrats in Congress are urging the release of more foreign criminals back into our country.”
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The damage is incalculable. Lives destroyed, money wasted, guilty are free. CONgre$$.
Why did the gop congress people let them get money to go even once
What's next? They want taxpayers to fund trips to 'speak' with foreign whores?
Make them repay
Shouldn’t we be talking about putting them on the NO GLY LIST for supporting Terrorism?? I think so and they should be foeced to drive home or take a bus home from El Salvador.
Congress has a slush fund for that already.
Fund raising thats all this is for them while we pay thier trip
BTTT
CLAW THE FUNDS BACK
Oh. Yea. The GOP wimp group is going to claw anything back
I can’t believe the Dems are still clinging to this losing agenda. Nobody wants that guy back. 😆
Finally! The Congressional GOP cut off the spigot to these demoncRATS who are coddling these gang bangers. Now if these demoncRATS proceed to El Salvador, close the dang borders and refuse to let these traitors return to the country of the brave and free.
When these House members are in El Salvador, the R’s can hold votes that they would otherwise narrowly lose. Remote voting via congressmen’s voting cards isn’t allowed.
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