Liberal Senator says he is flying to visit deported migrant in prison, other Dems planning trips https://ift.tt/Xmox8Gu

Democratic leaders are very worried about a Salvadoran migrant and accused MS-13 member who was living in Maryland and was deported to a maximum-security prison in his home country. Several have announced their intention to visit the migrant in prison if he is not released soon. 

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Maryland, said on Tuesday evening that he would be flying to El Salvador in the morning to visit the deported migrant.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, 29, was deported to the El Salvadoran megaprison "Terrorism Confinement Center" (CECOT) last month for being an alleged MS-13 gang member, but his attorneys maintain he does not have any gang ties.

The Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court's decision to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia from CECOT where federal officials have sent hundreds of suspected criminals and gang members. 

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The Trump administration agreed to clear any administrative obstacles keeping Abrego Garcia from coming back to the U.S., but Attorney General Pam Bondi has said that returning him is "up to El Salvador. If they want to return him. That's not up to us." 

This has caused no small outrage from Democrats, with Van Hollen being the first to announce he is traveling to El Salvador to help secure Abrego Garcia’s release. 

"Mr. Abrego Garcia was illegally abducted by the Trump Admin and, by their own admission, wrongly deported to El Salvador," said Van Hollen.

"He shouldn’t have to spend another second away from his family," he went on. "I'm flying to El Salvador tomorrow morning to check on his condition and discuss his return."

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Van Hollen is not the only Democrat discussing visiting Abrego Garcia and other imprisoned migrants. Far left Reps. Maxwell Frost, D-Florida, and Robert Garcia, D-California, issued a joint letter on Tuesday in which they said they are "prepared to travel as soon as possible." 

In their letter, which was sent to House Committee on Oversight and Accountability Chair James Comer, R-Kentucky, on Tuesday, Frost and Garcia requested authorization to send a congressional delegation to visit CECOT to "conduct a welfare check" on Garcia and other deported migrants at the prison. 

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The two representatives said they were also concerned about the wellbeing of Andry José Hernández Romero, a 31-year-old gay makeup artist who was sent to CECOT on suspicion of being a gang member. 

"We are prepared to travel as soon as possible," the two said, adding that they would "gladly include any Republican Members of the Committee who wish to participate." 

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Frost, who is the youngest and one of the most progressive members of Congress, slammed the Trump administration on X, saying that Abrego Garcia was "wrongly deported" to El Salvador as part of the "Trump Administration’s government-funded kidnapping rampage." 

"He is rotting away in a foreign prison where his life is in danger," said Frost. "We need to go there now to make sure he’s okay."