A top House Republican is refusing to authorize a Democratic congressional trip to El Salvador to investigate the notorious maximum security prison where President Donald Trump’s administration is paying to hold hundreds of migrants from the United States, including Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old man from Maryland.
“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,” House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) said in a statement on Thursday.
Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.), a member of the committee, wrote to Green on Wednesday requesting a congressional member delegation (CODEL) to El Salvador as part of the panel’s oversight duties. She’s one of several congressional Democrats seeking to organize an official trip to the country.
“Given that the Administration’s use of CECOT for illegal and unconstitutional deportations is rife with ’administrative errors,” she wrote in a letter, naming the Salvadoran prison, “I urgently request a CODEL to conduct oversight.”
Ramirez said the Trump administration deported Abrego Garcia and other migrants without due process, calling the actions “illegal, unconstitutional and inhumane.”
Meanwhile, Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday, but officials there refused his request for a meeting or phone call with Abrego Garcia, his constituent. Both Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele have refused to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return despite a unanimous Supreme Court order.
“The Trump administration is clearly in violation of American court orders,” Van Hollen said at a press conference in San Salvador on Wednesday.
Abrego Garcia was removed from the U.S. due to what government officials later acknowledged was an administrative error. Trump officials have accused him of being a gang member, an allegation his lawyers have denied.
Several House Republicans also made the trip to visit CECOT, which has a reputation for torture, in El Salvador this week.
Reps. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) shared photos of themselves on social media praising the Trump administration’s deportation policies. Moore smiled and held two thumbs up in a photo where he stood in front of a packed prison cell.
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