House Dems Request Official Delegation to El Salvador

Two House Democrats sent a letter to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Ky., on Tuesday requesting approval for an official congressional delegation, or CODEL, to visit the prison in El Salvador where the Trump administration is sending some deportees, Axios reported.

In the letter, Reps. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., said a delegation would allow Democrats to "conduct a welfare check" on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an El Salvador national who's being held at Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), the maximum-security prison in Tecoluca, El Salvador.

Abrego Garcia, who the administration says is an MS-13 gang member, was sent to El Salvador due to an "administrative error." However, despite a U.S. Supreme Court ruling to bring him back, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Monday the idea is "preposterous."

Garcia and Frost claimed in their letter that the Senate "has already authorized CODEL travel to CECOT" and that "the House should be represented."

Axios reported that Sen. Cory Booker, D-N.J., is the Democrat trying to arrange a Senate delegation to El Salvador.

"We are prepared to travel as soon as possible. We would gladly include any Republican Members of the Committee who wish to participate. Given that the Senate has already authorized CODEL travel to CECOT, we believe the House should also be represented," Garcia and Frost wrote to Comer.

Democrats, who have made Abrego Garcia's plight a cause célèbre, could still take an informal trip to El Salvador if Comer declined the CODEL request. A CODEL, however, gives lawmakers oversight powers and security resources, according to the report.

The letter comes a day after Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said he's ready to travel to El Salvador if Abrego Garcia isn't returned immediately. Van Hollen requested a meeting with Bukele through El Salvador's ambassador to the U.S.

"I write to urgently request a meeting with President Bukele during his current visit to the United States to discuss the illegal detention of my constituent, Kilmar Abrego Garcia," Van Hollen said.

The Trump administration has persistently pushed back on the media referring to Abrego Garcia as a "Maryland man," saying he belongs behind bars whether it's in El Salvador or the U.S. The White House called the media's coverage "despicable."

Stephen Miller, Trump's deputy chief of staff, said Monday: "This individual is a citizen of El Salvador. He was illegally in the United States and was returned to his country. That's where you deport people, back to their country of origin."

• El Salvador's Bukele: We Won't Be Releasing Maryland Man to US
• Kristi Noem to Newsmax: Man Deported in Error ‘Very Dangerous’