In a Tuesday news conference, California Rep. Robert Garcia detailed his visit to El Salvador with other Democratic lawmakers to demand the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the 29-year-old Maryland man who was imprisoned in the country following his removal from the United States.
Garcia was joined on the trip Monday by Democratic Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon. The congressman said the group decided to travel to El Salvador after they were denied an official congressional trip by House Republicans.
Garcia said that when the group arrived in El Salvador, they met with U.S. Embassy officials, the ambassador, Abrego Garcia’s family, attorney and human rights advocates. The delegation demanded to see Abrego Garcia but were denied, Garcia said.
Abrego Garcia was initially held in El Salvador’s notorious Terrorist Confinement Center mega-prison, or CECOT, though he was later transferred to another facility, according to Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who met with Abrego Garcia last week.
Garcia said Tuesday that he believed the Trump administration was defying a recent Supreme Court ruling requiring the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return after he was mistakenly deported in March.
“What I think is really important in this moment that people understand is that this is a new line that [President] Donald Trump is crossing that is about due process, our Constitution and our democracy,” Garcia said.
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Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national, came to the U.S. unlawfully in 2011 and was arrested in 2019. When he was released from custody that year, a court granted him withholding of removal, a legal status barring deportation to his home country. In March, Abrego Garcia was arrested by immigration authorities and deported to El Salvador, igniting a legal battle demanding his return. A federal official later called his removal an “administrative error” in court papers.
Last week, El Salvador’s president Nayib Bukele visited the White House, where he said he would not return Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that deciding to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. would be “up to El Salvador.”
Garcia referred to the Trump administration’s decision not to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. as a “constitutional crisis.”
On Tuesday, he also accused the Trump administration of trying to instill fear in immigrant communities, citing a recent incident in Los Angeles in which Homeland Security agents were denied entry to two South Los Angeles public schools, according to Los Angeles Unified School District Superintendent Alberto Carvalho.
“We are concerned that the Trump administration could essentially snatch people, kidnap people off our streets in the United States and send them to a prison in El Salvador with no due process,” Garcia said.
Garcia said he will continue to demand Abrego Garcia’s release until he is free, noting that other members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus plan on traveling to El Salvador. Garcia will return if necessary, he said.
