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WHEN REPUBLICANS DENIED AN OFFICIAL TRAVEL REQUEST to El Salvador from Democratic members of Congress, the tweet from the House Oversight Committee was predictably dumb: “Your request to visit a foreign MS-13 gang member in El Salvador on taxpayer dollars (and possibly drink margaritas) has been denied.”
But it also had real impact.
Four House Democrats had been hoping to make a trip similar to the one taken by Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who had gone to El Salvador to visit Kilmar Abrego Garcia, becoming the first lawmaker to get confirmation that the detained man was alive after being sent there.
Because Republicans have the majority, they denied the Democrats public funds to travel. So the four lawmakers—Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.), Yassamin Ansari (D-Ariz.), Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.), and Maxine Dexter (D-Ore.)—had to pay for their travel by themselves. Which they did, in hopes of also meeting Abrego Garcia.
“What’s most concerning is there is a 9–0 Supreme Court order that Donald Trump is defying and we’re headed to a constitutional crisis if Abrego Garcia is not returned,” Rep. Garcia told The Bulwark from El Salvador on Monday. He said that rectifying the administration’s error is an “enormously important case for due process for this country.”
Much has been made of whether Democrats can and should be devoting time and resources to the almost 300 men sent to El Salvador—90 percent of whom, according to Bloomberg, did not have criminal records—or whether the party should instead focus more on a foundering economy. The Democratic delegation to El Salvador said it was a false choice.
“It’s really important for Democrats to talk about multiple things at once,” Rep. Garcia said. “We can fight for relief and due process for the wrongfully incarcerated, we can fight billionaires like Elon Musk and oppose the destruction of our federal agencies.”
The representatives who traveled to El Salvador also sent a letter to Secretary of State Marco Rubio demanding the State Department continue wellness checks on Abrego Garcia, secure his access to counsel, and work for his return in compliance with the U.S. Supreme Court order.
But while Abrego Garcia has garnered by far the most attention of the detainees sent to El Salvador, the four House Democrats also asked for proof of life of Andry José Hernández Romero, a gay, 19-year-old Venezuelan makeup artist whose detention has also made waves. Hernández Romero was classified as a gang member because he has tattoos that say “mom” and “dad” with crowns.
Ansari told me no one had heard from Hernández Romero, who has been documented to have no history of criminal activity, since March 14.
“Everyone is extremely worried about him,” she said from El Salvador. “We’ve had no proof of life in over a month.”
Lindsay Toczylowski, the president and CEO of Immigrant Defenders Law Center, which is representing Hernández Romero and nine others sent from the United States to CECOT, told The Bulwark the last person to speak to Andry was his mother. At the time he spoke with her, he thought he was being sent to Venezuela.
Toczylowski said that when she heard the congressional delegation was headed to El Salvador, her group immediately asked them to highlight cases beyond just Abrego Garcia’s.
“Abrego Garcia is vitally important to due process, but there are hundreds of others, including Andry, who were denied due process, who will potentially be imprisoned for life in El Salvador,” Toczylowski said.
She expressed gratitude for a second letter the delegation sent on Hernández Romero’s behalf to Rubio and U.S. Ambassador to El Salvador William Duncan. In it, the lawmakers demanded that either they or Hernández Romero’s lawyers “be allowed to conduct a welfare check regarding his health, safety, and current legal status.”
The family of Abrego Garcia released a statement in support of the Democratic delegation’s trip, saying their presence in El Salvador sends a “powerful message” that the fight to bring him home isn’t over.
“I’m fighting for Kilmar and for all the other Kilmars who have been unjustly deported without due process,” Jennifer Vasquez Sura, Abrego Garcia’s wife, said in the statement. “We need Congress to keep showing up, both here and abroad, until justice is served and the rights of everyone are protected.”
Ansari stressed that it is important for Americans to understand the gravity of what is happening in El Salvador, particularly at a time when Trump has teased interest in sending U.S. citizens to the country’s prisons. “It’s also why it’s important that members of Congress have access who aren’t just Republicans,” she said.
Ansari told me Chris Newman—the lawyer for the Abrego Garcia family who made the initial trip with Van Hollen—also joined their trip, which included a classified briefing at the U.S. embassy. Ansari said that while she could not share details from that briefing, Democrats were repeatedly told that they would have to take up their questions with Rubio. The delegation also met with human rights activists at Universidad Centroamericano.
The lawyers for Hernández Romero and Abrego Garcia’s families said that attention from Democrats and media is critical. Ansari agreed. So did Toczylowski.
“We are 100 percent in the camp of ‘We need to shine a light on this,’” Toczylowski said. Her reasoning is that immigration judges have begun trying to dismiss the cases of those sent to El Salvador, like musician Arturo Suarez, who was picked up in North Carolina, effectively washing their hands of the fate of these men.
“The government wants to disappear these people, so we think talking about who these individuals are and making sure elected officials don’t forget about them is the most important lever we have to get them back,” she added. “The moment people stop paying attention they’re going to live out their lives potentially or die in El Salvador.”
Newman called out any Democrats who were uneasy with Van Hollen’s initial trip to El Salvador, believing the senator was taking bait from Donald Trump. Newman said Van Hollen’s decision to be the first to jump “feet first” into visiting the country and advocating for the wrongfully deported man will be “fundamental to freeing Abrego Garcia and saving his life.”
Newman himself was worried for his safety in El Salvador. He made a promise to his partner, Marjorie Garcia, a prominent entertainment lawyer, that he would stay close to an “unarrestable” member of Congress.
“On the line is not just Kilmar’s eventual liberation,” the lawyer said, “but whether or not there will be consequences for lawless behavior from the executive branch. It’s not hyperbole to say the outcome of what happens with Kilmar has implications for every single person living in the U.S.”
The House members said this is just the beginning of their efforts to pressure Trump on El Salvador.
“The fact the president is defying the Supreme Court—this is the moment we’ve been watching for,” Ansari said. “My constituents asked me, ‘What if he doesn’t listen to the Supreme Court?’ Well, we’re here.”
NBC News has an important story about how the Trump administration’s crackdown in immigration and attacks on medical science are harming the fight against cancer. Kseniia Petrova, a Russian-born researcher at Harvard, has been playing a key role in developing new imaging techniques that could revolutionize cancer diagnostics. Well, she had been—ICE has been holding her in detention for two months.
“I’m very confident she is the only way we can achieve the true potential of this microscope,” said a colleague of hers. “Without her, I fully believe that all the insights into cures or fundamental biology that we could make will not be made.”
In response to a viral tweet of the NBC News story, a DHS spokesperson said Petrova was entering the country with petri dishes and embryonic frog cells without proper permits.
Great Job Adrian Carrasquillo & the Team @ The Bulwark Source link for sharing this story.
