Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., on Friday denied the request of two House Democrats who wanted approval for an official congressional delegation, or CODEL, to visit the prison in El Salvador where Kilmar Abrego Garcia is being held.
Comer, chairman of the House Oversight Committee, called the request “absurd.”
In a letter to Comer earlier this week, Reps. Robert Garcia, D-Calif., and Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., said a delegation would allow Democrats to “conduct a welfare check” on Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who was deported in March by the Trump administration, which maintains that he is a gang member.
“Your request is denied,” Comer wrote back.
“If Democrats wish to travel to El Salvador and meet with a foreign illegal MS-13 gang member, they can spend their own money to do so. I will not approve a single dime of Oversight Committee taxpayer funds for use on the excursion Democrats have requested,” Comer said in a post to X with his letter attached.
Democrats could still take an informal trip to El Salvador. A CODEL, however, gives lawmakers oversight powers and security resources.
“It is absurd that you both displayed active hostility for over two years toward the Committee’s oversight of the Biden Border Crisis and the consequences of millions of illegal aliens entering the country, yet now, you are seeking travel at Committee expense to meet with foreign gang members,” Comer wrote, adding, “you can spend your own money.”
Comer slammed the door on the Democrats the same day that Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., held a press conference about his highly publicized visit to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia, whose plight has become a cause celebre among many Democrats.
Van Hollen said he traveled to El Salvador to urge his release. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, however, posted a photo of the pair on X, describing them as “sipping margaritas” in the “tropical paradise of El Salvador!”
Van Hollen held a news conference Friday to describe his meeting with Abrego Garcia at a lower-level lockup in Santa Ana, El Salvador. Van Hollen said Abrego Garcia was transferred from the maximum-security Terrorism Confinement Center nine days ago.
“He said that the conditions were better at this new detention center, but he was still in a total blackout,” Van Hollen said. “He said that he felt very sad to be in a place that’s meant for criminals. That’s not who he is.”
The Trump administration and two court hearings under the Biden administration disagree. First, Abrego Garcia was in the U.S. illegally, making him deportable. Second, he was given a deportation reprieve in 2019 over fear of retaliation from rival gangs.
“If he was worried about violence from a rival gang in El Salvador, that he’s effectively admitting he’s part of a gang himself,” former federal prosecutor Francey Hakes told Newsmax earlier this week. “And now that President Trump has designated MS-13 a foreign terrorist organization, he’s no longer entitled to that withholding of the deportation that a judge in some sympathy gave him in 2019 because he was no longer entitled to claim asylum.”
“Every member of the gang is a member of a criminal conspiracy,” she added.
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