A Maryland senator has vowed to travel to El Salvador in attempts to negotiate the release of Maryland father Kilmar Abrego García as El Salvador’s president and the Trump administration are seemingly working in tandem to defy court orders and continue his imprisonment.
Democrat Sen. Chris Van Hollen said in a statement on Monday that he is planning to travel to El Salvador this week if the father of three, Van Hollen’s constituent, is not returned to the U.S. by midweek. The purpose of the trip would be “to check on his condition and discuss his release,” the senator said.
“Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia never should have been abducted and illegally deported, and the courts have made clear: the Administration must bring him home, now,” Van Hollen said. “However, since the Trump Administration appears to be ignoring these court mandates, we need to take additional action.”
The senator has also requested a meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to discuss the release of Abrego García, who Trump administration officials deported due to what the administration has called an “oversight” and “administrative error.”
On Monday, in a press conference with President Donald Trump in the White House, Bukele said that he refuses to allow Abrego García to be returned to the U.S. Even as Attorney General Pam Bondi said that the U.S. would facilitate Abrego García’s return if released, Bukele claimed that he is powerless to do so — which immigration experts and other critics said was an absurd lie.
The Trump administration, meanwhile, has claimed in court that it has no obligation to return Abrego García to his home, despite the Supreme Court’s unanimous order for the administration to “facilitate and effectuate” his return. Attempting to retroactively justify his deportation, officials have claimed that he was part of the MS-13 gang — a claim that Abrego García denies and that has gotten more and more dubious as reporters have looked into it.
Lawmakers and legal experts have said that officials’ refusal to facilitate Abrego García’s return constitutes the administration openly defying the Supreme Court, amounting to a constitutional crisis at a time when Trump officials are brazenly — rather than more covertly, as presidential administrations have done in the past — expanding the executive branch’s power to abduct and deport anyone they choose to target regardless of legality, seemingly based only on their race or political beliefs.
Despite this, Democratic leaders appear largely directionless when it comes to opposing Trump’s deportation campaign and anti-immigrant raid of the U.S.
Several Democratic lawmakers have said that they will join Van Hollen on his trip to El Salvador. Rep. Maxwell Frost (Florida) said on social media that he would tag along on the trip and try to recruit House members to join. Two more House members, Representatives Robert Garcia (California) and Yassamin Ansari (Arizona), also said they would join.
“We must all stand as a united front against the kidnapping and illegal detention of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador,” said Frost.
At the same time, Rep. Jim McGovern (D-Massachusetts) and seven other Democrats have written a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, demanding answers to questions about the administration’s agreement with Bukele to continue imprisoning hundreds of Americans like Abrego García in the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). Administration officials have refused to disclose the details of the deal, even to the court overseeing his case.
“We are concerned that such an agreement, which you characterized as ‘the most unprecedented and extraordinary migratory agreement anywhere in the world,’ would not only implicate the United States in grave human rights violations but undermine U.S. national security,” the lawmakers wrote.
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