More congressional Democrats go to El Salvador over deportation of Abrego Garcia

Four House Democrats have traveled to El Salvador to, in the words of one member, remind Americans that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an El Salvadoran migrant who had been living in Maryland, was wrongfully deported to his home country. 

“While Donald Trump continues to defy the Supreme Court, Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held illegally in El Salvador after being wrongfully deported,” said California Rep. Robert Garcia, one of the four.  “That is why we’re here – to remind the American people that kidnapping immigrants and deporting them without due process is not how we do things in America.”

The other three making the trip and who arrived Monday are Reps. Maxwell Frost, of Florida; Maxine Dexter, of Oregon; and Yassamin Ansari, of Arizona, according to The New York Times. 

They follow Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen's visit late last week to El Salvador, where he got to talk with Abrego Garcia. 

Abrego Garcia came to the U.S. illegally and was subject to possible deportation. But in 2019, an immigration judge granted him a withholding of removal order, issued over concerns he would be persecuted if he returned to his country of origin.

The Trump administration has argued Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang and said he was mistakenly deported. 

Top White House aide Stephen Miller last week said Abrego Garcia was not mistakenly deported and blamed an attorney from the Department of Justice for claiming he was.