A group of House Democrats who traveled to El Salvador on Monday were denied a meeting with Kilmer Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was falsely deported to the state, and they said they now demand “evidence of life” every day.
Democrats Robert Garcia (California), Maxwell Frost (Fla.), Jassamine Ansari (Arizona) and Maxine Dexter (Oregon) are here shortly after Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen’s visit to Abrego Garcia and Salvador civil servants.
Lawmakers met with the US ambassador, Salvador ambassador William Duncan at the San Salvador embassy Monday morning, defending the ambassador’s release and urging local officials to seek transparency.
“We can leave that meeting with absolutely zero signs that this administration would promote or encourage Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States and he can go through legitimate procedures,” Frost said. Press conference.
Lawmakers called for the release of Abrego Garcia and pointed out that while in custody they were there to make sure he was in the right situation, but their mission was great. If the administration is deported and does not promote Abrego Garcia’s return, they may do that to others, Democrats argued.
“We need Kilmer to get home, but we’re worried that if this is allowed to fly, it will encourage the Trump administration to continue,” Ansari said at a news conference.
Ansari shared with media members that she and other Democrats wrote to Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Monday asking him to provide daily evidence of Abrego Garcia’s life.
“We were unable to get the necessary answers from the embassy today, so we wrote a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio 30 minutes ago. We asked Abrego Garcia for evidence of daily life and he requested that he have access to his lawyers. “And it won’t stop until this is done.”
US Embassy officials said New York Times Their concerns were communicated to the Salvador government after House Democrats held a meeting at the embassy on Monday.
The Trump administration previously admitted to mistakenly deporting Abrego Garcia, but has since said he would not bring him home, sparking a fight and battle between the executive and the judicial department.
The Supreme Court ordered the administration to “promote” Abrego Garcia’s return, but left the shaking to say Trump officials are responsible for El Salvador. Salvadoran President Naive Bukere said he would not return the Maryland man.
During Van Hollen’s visit, he was eventually given permission to meet with Abrego Garcia, during which he said he informed him of his efforts to secure his release and criticised the Salvadora government for creating better terms for men.
Abrego Garcia was given deportation protection in a 2019 court ruling, noting that he faced the threat of his life in his native El Salvador. The Trump administration has sought to blame Abrego Garcia as a member of the MS-13 gang.
Oka reached out to the State Department for comment.
