GOP Rep. Won't Authorize Dems' Trip To El Salvador To See Kilmar Abrego Garcia [View all]

Source: Huff Post

Apr 17, 2025, 04:03 PM EDT


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.”

Read more: https://www.huffpost.com/entry/kilmar-abrego-garcia-el-salvador_n_68014b8ce4b027910a16174c