Four House Democrats traveled to El Salvador on Monday to press for the release of a Maryland resident who was mistakenly deported there last month, and to demand updates on him and other migrants who are imprisoned there.
The visit was the latest bid by Democrats in Congress to amplify the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man whom Trump administration officials have admitted to erroneously sending back to his home country, and the hundreds of other immigrants the administration has hastily deported in violation of federal judges’ orders to allow them a chance to challenge their treatment.
Representatives Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Alejandro Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine E. Dexter of Oregon met with William H. Duncan, the U.S. ambassador to El Salvador, at the embassy in San Salvador on Monday morning. They urged the ambassador to raise the issue with Salvadoran officials and to press for transparency about Mr. Abrego Garcia’s detention, which they argued contravened both judicial orders by American judges and international norms.
The lawmakers said they had not been permitted by Salvadoran officials to meet with Mr. Abrego Garcia themselves.
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After their meeting, a U.S. Embassy official, who was not authorized to comment and spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the lawmakers’ concerns had been relayed to the Salvadoran government. The members of Congress also raised the case of Andry Jose Hernandez Romero, a Venezuelan makeup artist who was detained for months in California and was among those deported from the United States last month.
The official said it was the first time the embassy had raised questions to President Nayib Bukele’s administration about the treatment of more than 250 Venezuelan migrants now being held in Salvadoran custody.
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