Democratic lawmakers continue to side with deported illegal criminal Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Four more House Democrats flew to El Salvador on Monday to demand the return of Garcia, a suspected MS-13 gang member and alleged wife beater who was deported by the Trump administration in March.
In a post on X, the Department of Homeland Security called out their antics and bashed the trip.
Four more U.S. lawmakers just landed in El Salvador to meet and shake hands with a terrorist. ⁰⁰All four of them voted against the Laken Riley Act. ⁰⁰Why are these politicians putting terrorists illegally in our country over American victims? https://t.co/n4qj1pRUJC
— Homeland Security (@DHSgov) April 21, 2025
“Four more U.S. lawmakers just landed in El Salvador to meet and shake hands with a terrorist. All four of them voted against the Laken Riley Act. Why are these politicians putting terrorists illegally in our country over American victims?”
Democratic Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon said they were in El Salvador to advocate for Garcia’s release.
Democrat lawmakers, Garcia’s family and attorneys and the mainstream news media contend the Trump administration wrongly deported Garcia without due process, and if it can happen to him, it will happen to any American.
They argued the Trump administration’s removal of Garcia constituted “kidnapping” or him being “disappeared” – a term used to describe abducted and murdered prisoners and dissidents during Argentina’s “Dirty War,” Fox News reports.
President Donald Trump weighed in on Abrego Garcia’s case in another TRUTH Social post on Sunday, taking aim at the news media and “radical lunatic Democrats.” Trump maintains Garcia has been found by two separate Courts to be a member of MS-13, was in the Country illegally, and is under a Deportation Order.
“It is despicable and unAmerican for Liberals and the Mainstream Media to hate our Country so much, and be obsessed with protecting criminals, instead of working to keep our Border, streets, and families safe,” he added. “Those lying to the American People on behalf of violent criminals have to be held responsible by the Agencies and the Courts. MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!”
This latest trip follows last week’s visit to El Salvador by Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who secured a meeting with Garcia while his own constituent Patty Morin, the mother of Rachel Morin, shared gruesome details of the violent murder of her daughter.
Rachel Morin, 37, a Maryland mother of 5, was raped and killed in August 2023 at the hands of another criminal illegal alien. Jurors took less than an hour to convict Victor Martinez-Hernandez, 24, who faces up to life in prison for killing Morin on the Ma & Pa Heritage Trail in Maryland.
Lawmakers claim the Trump administration is defying a Supreme Court order directing his administration to “facilitate” Garcia’s return, stemming from a 2019 court order barring his deportation to his home country due to the fear of persecution.
Garcia was among the illegal criminal aliens deported to CECOT, a high-security prison in El Salvador housing the country’s own gang members. He has since been transferred to the detention facility “Centro Industrial” in Santa Ana.
The Trump administration has defended the deportation of Garcia on the grounds he is a confirmed member of the violent MS-13 street gang, now designated a federal terrorist organization.
According to police records, Garcia was detained in March 2019 after loitering in a Home Depot parking lot with known MS-13 gang members who had cash and marijuana.
The men “freely admitted being citizens and nationals of El Salvador by birth and that they were present in the United States illegally,” according to the records released by Attorney General Pam Bondi. Garcia also had $1,178 cash in his possession.
Officers with Prince George County Police confirmed Garcia’s gang affiliation based on his clothing, tattoos and a reliable gang informant. Two judges denied his bond.
In May 2021, Garcia’s wife Jennifer Vasquez obtained a temporary protective order against him alleging he hit and scratched her and ripped her clothes off, according to court records.
A Tennessee Highway Patrol trooper stopped Garcia with a car full of people and no luggage in 2022. He was driving with an expired license and suspected of human or labor trafficking, but FBI officials under the Biden administration told THP to release them.
Numerous Democrats have said they plan to keep pressuring Salvadoran officials for Abrego Garcia’s release. But El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has said he will not return Garcia. Bukele recently visited the White House to meet with Trump officials and echoed the Trump administration in calling him a “terrorist,” The Hill reports.
Bukele has taken a tough stance on gangs in El Salvador after citizens were being terrorized by them. He was re-elected in a landslide win in February 2024.
In their press release, the four Democrats said their trip was not being financed by taxpayer dollars after House Oversight and Accountability Chairman James Comer, R-Ky., denied Garcia and Frost’s request for an official congressional member delegation (CODEL).
The National Republican Congressional Committee – the campaign for House Republicans – meanwhile, said it is offering to pick up the tab for any House Democrat “eager to hang out with their new poster child in El Salvador.
“We just have one condition: Livestream the whole thing. Snap plenty of selfies with your MS-13 buddies — the same violent criminals you’re trying to reimport into American neighborhoods to rape, kill, and terrorize law-abiding citizens,” the NRCC said.
