Democratic lawmakers are preparing to travel to El Salvador with the goal of securing the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland father who was abducted by the Trump administration and mistakenly sent to a brutal maximum security prison in the Central American nation.
On Sunday, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen sent a letter to Milena Mayorga, El Salvador’s ambassador to the United States, requesting a meeting with President Nayib Bukele to discuss the matter.
“If Kilmar is not home by midweek – I plan to travel to El Salvador this week to check on his condition and discuss his release,” Van Hollen said in a statement.
Rep. Maxwell Frost of Florida offered to join Van Hollen on his trip.
“We must all stand as a united front against the kidnapping and illegal detention of Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador,” Frost said in a post on Bluesky.
Recently elected Rep. Yassamin Ansari of Arizona said she hoped to join the delegation, as has Rep. Robert Garcia of California.
While Democrats are the minority in the House and Senate, these members are using the power of their elected offices to draw attention to Garcia’s wrongful detention and possibly secure his release. Democrats have been under fire from their base for not doing enough to oppose Trump’s lawless actions since he took office in January.
On Monday, at a White House appearance alongside Bukele, Trump pretended to be powerless to secure Garcia’s release. His administration has admitted in court that Garcia was wrongly deported to the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador. Bukele also claimed he was unable to release the man and referred to him as a “terrorist threat.”
Despite the Supreme Court ruling that Garcia, who is a Salvadoran citizen and legal U.S. resident, should be returned, Trump called reporters “sick people” for asking about the issue.
In a separate appearance on Fox News on Monday, Attorney General Pam Bondi lied and said Garcia is “not a Maryland man.” The administration has sought to put itself above the law while pushing for deportations.
Van Hollen slammed the administration’s dishonesty in a Tuesday appearance on CNN.
“I think that the situation for both the Trump administration and the president of El Salvador is unsustainable. Because the Supreme Court, as you reported, ruled 9-0 that the Trump administration has to facilitate his return, and you have the president of El Salvador saying, ‘Well, I don’t have the power to release him.’ Both things are untrue,” Van Hollen said.
Garcia is a father of three. His wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, has said she is “very scared” for his safety while he is being held in El Salvador. Garcia was granted protected status in 2011 after a U.S. court determined he “could be persecuted by gangs” if he returned to his native country.
The Trump administration has defied court orders to return Garcia and Trump suggested to Bukele that American citizens could also be sent to prison facilities in El Salvador.
El Salvador’s prison system has come under fire from international human rights organizations for abuses committed under Bukele, who has styled himself as a strongman. Despite—or perhaps because of—the deplorable conditions, Secretary of State Marco Rubio hailed the infamously cruel system as “excellent” in a March interview.