A Maryland congressman failed in an attempt to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia over the Memorial Day weekend, making him the latest in a string of Democratic lawmakers to fly to El Salvador to advocate for the alleged MS-13 gang member deported from the U.S.
Maryland Democratic Rep. Glenn Ivey posted a video Monday on social media, revealing that he was denied entry into the prison facility holding Abrego Garcia. The Maryland lawmaker — joined by the alleged gang member’s lawyer and a representative of a Maryland-based workers’ union — had hoped to speak to Abrego Garcia and repeated calls for him to be returned to the U.S.
“I’m the congressman that represents Kilmar,” Ivey said in a video posted on X, despite Abrego Garcia never being a U.S. citizen nor a legal resident of the country. He appeared to be standing in front of the prison alongside his delegation.
“I came all the way down from the United States after we contacted their ambassador, after we made a formal request to our ambassador to the El Salvadoran government, and we came down here to visit him today, and now they’re telling us we’ve got to go all the way back to San Salvador [the country’s capital] to get a permit,” Ivey said. “That’s ridiculous. We ought to have a chance to come in and visit.”
Democrats and other left-wing immigration advocates have remained fixated on Abrego Garcia, an illegal migrant accused of domestic abuse and gang affiliation, since he was repatriated back to his home country by the Trump administration.
In March, Abrego Garcia was arrested by Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents in Maryland and was among more than 200 foreign nationals deported to El Salvador later that month. His repatriation to El Salvador was in spite of a 2019 withholding of removal order that prohibited his return to the country, but the Trump White House has stood by the move, accusing him of being an MS-13 gang member and wife-beater who posed a danger to the community.
The Department of Justice in April released documents on Abrego Garcia’s 2019 arrest in Prince George’s County, Maryland, relating to his alleged gang affiliation. Following his arrest on local charges in Prince George’s County, a “past proven reliable source” informed local law enforcement that he was a member of MS-13, identifying his alleged nickname and rank within the gang, and he was arrested with clothing that local law enforcement identified as “indicative” of Latin gang culture.
The Department of Homeland Security also released a domestic violence restraining order sought by his wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, in June 2021 and later released a second protective order filed by Sura in August 2020. Abrego Garcia allegedly dragged Sura out of a vehicle by her hair and left her on the street in December 2019, broke her son’s tablet and broke down doors in their house in January 2020 and pushed her against a wall while breaking TVs and phones in March 2020.
“The facts are clear: Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a violent illegal alien who abuses women and children,” Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin said in a previous public statement. “He had no business being in our country and we are proud to have deported this violent thug.”
Abrego Garcia was initially sent to the Terrorism Confinement Center, better known for its Spanish acronym CECOT, a maximum security mega-prison in El Salvador that was built to hold documented MS-13 gangbangers and other members of notorious crime syndicates. However, he has since been relocated to a lower security prison in the Central American country.
During an April visit to the White House, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele stated he would not be returning Abrego Garcia to the U.S.
Maryland Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen in April was the first of his party to travel to El Salvador to demand a meeting with Abrego Garcia and called for him to be brought back to the U.S. He was followed by four House Democrats — Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona, Maxwell Frost of Florida and Maxine Dexter of Oregon — who travelled to the country later that month.
Following the release of domestic abuse and gang affiliation evidence against Abrego Garcia, House Democratic leader Hakeem Jeffries reportedly privately discouraged members of his party from any more trips to El Salvador. He has publicly denied such reporting, however, while Ivey’s visit indicates Democrats are still interested in traveling to the county to advocate on Abrego Garcia’s behalf.
“We’re going to continue to press the Trump administration to have him return, like the Supreme Court said should happen,” Ivey said to WJZ News Monday. “And so he could have his day in court and have a due process.”
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