SAN SALVADOR — Four Democratic members of Congress who traveled to El Salvador to advocate for Kilmar Abrego Garcia said Monday that they were denied a request to meet with the man who was wrongly deported by the U.S. government and sent to a Salvadoran prison.
“We’re here in El Salvador demanding the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia,” Rep. Robert Garcia (D-Long Beach) said at a news conference. “He needs to come home. This is about due process.”
The lawmakers had traveled to El Salvador at their own expense after being denied an official trip sanctioned by congressional leadership. They met with officials at the U.S. Embassy in San Salvador.
“We formally requested to see [Abrego Garcia] today and we were told at our meeting that the government here has denied our request to see him because this is not an official trip,” said Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.).
Frost said the legislators left a meeting at the embassy “with absolutely zero indication that this administration is going to facilitate or wants to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia.”
Garcia and Frost led the effort. They are joined by Reps. Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.) and Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.).
President Trump has refused to bring Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. — despite a Supreme Court order to “facilitate” his return — arguing he has no authority to do so.
The Abrego Garcia case has become a focal point in the debate over immigration and limits to executive authority. Trump has framed the Abrego Garcia case as an immigration issue, while critics say the real issue is upholding the Constitution and the right to due process.
“Trump is defying a Supreme Court order to bring Kilmar home,” Garcia said Sunday just before departing Washington for El Salvador. “We’re there to obviously demand his release and to continue the pressure on the administration.”
The lawmakers said they want to ensure that Abrego Garcia is safe and that his story does not fade away.
“We’re also worried about our own constituents,” Frost said. “We represent people across the entire nation. I’m from Orlando, Florida, a community filled with immigrants.”
Asked by The Times about the conversation they’d had with the Salvadoran government, Garcia declined to comment.
After meeting with the the legislators Monday, the U.S. Embassy requested that the Salvadoran government provide information on the welfare and whereabouts of Abrego Garcia, Andry Hernandez Romero — a gay Venezuelan makeup artist who was applying for asylum — and whether the group of congressional members could visit the maximum security prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT.
In a statement released Monday, Abrego Garcia’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said the family is grateful for the efforts by the members of Congress. She said she is particularly concerned about her husband’s health and hopes the legislators can find out more about his condition.
“Their presence sends a powerful message: the fight to bring Kilmar home isn’t over,” Vasquez Sura wrote. “I’m fighting for Kilmar and for all the other Kilmars who have been unjustly deported without due process. We need Congress to keep showing up, both here and abroad, until justice is served.”
Ansari said the group sent a letter Monday to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding daily proof of life of Abrego Garcia and that he receives access to counsel until he is returned home.
The legislators were joined during the news conference by Chris Newman, legal director for the Los Angeles-based National Day Laborer Organizing Network, who is representing Abrego Garcia’s family.
“Unfortunately, we are no longer able to trust the representations about this case made either by the United States government or by the Salvadoran government,” Newman said. “And indeed, this case is about many things, but above all, it is about truth versus lies.”
Democrats had hoped to organize a congressional delegation to visit Abrego Garcia. Trips that are organized in an official capacity grant legislators more security and resources.
On Tuesday, Garcia and Frost sent a letter to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) requesting authorization to fund an official visit to CECOT, a mega-prison that can hold 40,000 people.
“A Congressional delegation would allow Committee Members to conduct a welfare check on Mr. Abrego Garcia, as well as others held at CECOT, such as Andry José Hernandez — a 30-year-old LGBTQ makeup artist who passed a ‘credible fear’ interview during his legal asylum process before being deported,” the lawmakers wrote. “In addition, congressional oversight is warranted following President Trump’s recent remarks in which he expressed a desire to send ‘homegrown criminals’ — including U.S. citizens — to this facility.”
Comer denied the request Friday, stating in a letter that he would not “approve a single dime of taxpayer funds” for such a trip.
“It is absurd that you both displayed active hostility for over two years toward the Committee’s oversight of the Biden Border Crisis and the consequences of millions of illegal aliens entering the country,” Comer wrote, “yet now, you are seeking travel at Committee expense to meet with foreign gang members.”
House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) denied a similar request from Rep. Delia C. Ramirez (D-Ill.).
But House Republicans were granted official travel to El Salvador last week. Reps. Jason Smith (R-Mo.) and Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) shared photos on X of themselves at the prison.
Garcia called Comer’s denial “shameful” given the approvals for Republican members.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) was the first U.S. legislator to meet with Abrego Garcia. Van Hollen returned Friday from a three-day trip to El Salvador to push for his release, saying the case is about far more than one man.
“It’s about protecting the constitutional rights of everybody who resides in the United States,” Van Hollen said.
Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia told him he had been moved from CECOT to a detention center with better conditions.
Newman confirmed he has had no access to his client.
“We know nothing of Mr. Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts since the staged photo op on Thursday with Sen. Van Hollen,” he said.
Garcia said his trip continues the groundwork that Van Hollen laid.
Abrego Garcia, who is from El Salvador, lived legally in Maryland. A 2019 immigration judge’s order prohibited his removal to El Salvador. But he was removed March 15 in what Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged was an “administrative error.” White House officials allege that he is a member of MS-13, though he has not been charged with gang-related crimes.
Castillo reported from Washington and Rauda Zablah from San Salvador.
