A Democratic congresswoman from Colorado is the latest lawmaker to announce she will travel to El Salvador to advocate for the release of deported illegal migrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.
Rep. Maxine Dexter, D-Ore., said late Friday she would jet to the South American country following Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s, D-Md., highly publicized visit there this week when he met with Abrego Garcia, who was deported to the country’s “Terrorism Confinement Center” (CECOT) megaprison with other suspected illegal migrant gang members last month.
“A legal U.S. resident has had his due process rights ripped away and is now being held indefinitely in a foreign prison,” Dexter said in a statement.
“This is not just one family’s nightmare; it is a constitutional crisis that should outrage every single one of us. I will travel to El Salvador to confront this crisis head on. Our constitutional rights are on the line.”
FEDERAL JUDGE HAMMERS DOJ ON WHEREABOUTS OF ALLEGED MS-13 GANG MEMBER FOLLOWING SCOTUS ORDER
The case has drawn a wedge between Democrats and Republicans.
The Trump administration argues Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member who is suspected of human trafficking and has a violent history of abusing his wife.
A 2022 Homeland Security Investigations report identified Garcia as a member of MS-13 and a suspected human trafficker. A 2021 domestic violence filing, written by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez, claimed, “I have multiple photos/videos of how violent he can be and all the bruises he [has] left me.”
Democrats say he is a hard-working Maryland resident who has had his due process rights stripped away after being sent to the notorious prison.
The Supreme Court acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a 2019 withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador, and that the removal to El Salvador was “therefore illegal.” The Court stressed that the government must facilitate his release from custody in El Salvador and treat his case as if he were never deported.
WHITE HOUSE PHOTO BLUNTLY SHOWS WHERE PARTIES STAND ON IMMIGRATION AMID ABREGO GARCIA DEPORTATION
Trump administration officials acknowledged in court that his deportation had been an administrative error, although now some top Trump officials say he was correctly removed and contend he’s a member of the notorious MS-13 gang.
One immigration judge in 2019 found that Garcia had not sufficiently refuted evidence of MS-13 affiliation and was thus removable to anywhere other than El Salvador because of a threat from a rival gang. This is called a withholding order.
On Friday, Trump released an image of Abrego Garcia’s hand showing purported MS-13 gang tattoos.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller on Monday said that two courts found Abrego Garcia to be an MS-13 gang member, and he was deported after Trump declared the violent gang a terrorist organization.
Miller said that when Trump declared MS-13 a terrorist organization, Abrego Garcia was no longer eligible for any form of immigration relief in the United States.
Critics, including Republicans and Trump allies, have questioned why Van Hollen would travel abroad to advocate for someone with alleged gang ties and a record of domestic abuse while remaining silent on victims like Rachel Morin, a Maryland woman murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2023.
The White House released a split-screen image to underscore what it says is the stark contrast between where Republicans and Democrats stand on illegal immigration.
One image featured distraught Angel Mom Patty Morin, mother of Rael Morin, being comforted by President Trump in the Oval Office. The other image showed Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., sitting and talking with Abrego Garcia, 29, in El Salvador.
“We are not the same,” the White House captioned the image while tagging Van Hollen.
Fox News’ Greg Wehner, Kerri Urbahn and Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.
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