Congressional Democrats are growing concerned that their hopes of bringing home a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported to a high-security prison in El Salvador may be slipping away, even as they struggle with how to push for his return.
Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele declared during his Monday visit to the U.S. that the country would not release Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the U.S.
This has left the minority party fretting about where to go from here, according to multiple Democratic sources.
One Senate Democratic aide told The Hill that a number of Senate Democrats have been texting back and forth about a possible forceful response against President Trump’s handling of the situation, but worry that swinging too hard could play into the administration’s hands.
“That’s a concern. Most people are pretty devastated,” the aide said. “No one has been able to give us an answer of ‘what happens now.’ You’re not going to send troops to get him or anything.”
The aide also added that there’s a “realism” setting in among some that Abrego Garcia probably won’t be coming home anytime soon.
The chances of Abrego Garcia being returned to the U.S. hit an apex on Friday when the Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” his return. That came on the heels of administration lawyers admitting they made a mistake in sending him to El Salvador.
But since then, it’s been all downhill.
The White House has made clear that they believe the ball is squarely in El Salvador’s court and has leaned on what they believe is a loose interpretation of the Supreme Court’s order to “facilitate” his return.
“Deporting him back to El Salvador was always going to be the end result. There is never going to be a world in which this is an individual who is going to live a peaceful life in Maryland,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters at Tuesday’s briefing.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said on Monday that this means, to them, providing a plane — but whether he can board that is up to the Salvadoran government.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers are pushing for further clarification, arguing that the administration must at least request his return from the Central American nation to comply with the Supreme Court’s orders.
Joseph Mazzara, Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s general counsel, wrote in a filing on Tuesday that if Abrego Garcia’s returns to the U.S., he will either be detained and removed to a third country or have his order “terminate[d]” and sent back to El Salvador.
Nevertheless, Senate Democrats are pulling on all available levers, no matter how limited.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) has led those efforts. He told reporters on Monday that he was seeking a meeting with Bukele during his visit to Washington, and that he would travel to El Salvador midweek if Abrego Garcia was not released immediately. On Tuesday, he announced he would travel to the country on Wednesday.
“Following his abduction and unlawful deportation, U.S. federal courts have ordered the safe return of my constituent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States,” Van Hollen said in a Tuesday statement.
“It should be a priority of the U.S. government to secure his safe release, which is why tomorrow I am traveling to El Salvador,” he added.
In the House, Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) and Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) on Tuesday sent a letter to Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) requesting a visit by a congressional delegation to the prison holding Abrego Garcia. A day earlier, Rep. Adriano Espaillat (D-N.Y.), the chair of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus, also suggested a trip to verify Abrego Garcia’s well-being and called on El Salvador to release him.
Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday called Bukele’s refusal to return Abrego Garcia “pure nonsense.”
Others are highlighting the clash between the executive and judicial branches and their concern about the administration defying a court order, despite the concern in some circles about escalating a war of words with the White House.
“This is the constitutional crisis. It’s the confrontation between the court saying that the president has to bring Abrego Garcia back home and Trump refusing to do it,” said Sen. Chris Murphy (D-Conn.). “If the president has the power to jail, imprison and deport anyone, even if they have a legal right to be here … then none of us are safe.”
“Today, it’s this El Salvadoran immigrant, but tomorrow it could be you or me,” he added.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) on Tuesday said the Supreme Court should hold Trump administration officials in contempt if they don’t move to bring Abrego Garcia back.
Administration officials meanwhile, are doubling down on their case that Abrego Garcia’s deportation wasn’t a mistake, insisting that he is a “terrorist” and a violent gang member, despite presenting no criminal evidence.
“[H]e is a foreign terrorist and an MS-13 gang member. Not only have we confirmed that, President Bukele yesterday in the Oval Office confirmed that as well,” Leavitt continued, pointing to why he won’t live a “peaceful” life. “So he went back to his home country, where he will face consequences for his gang affiliation and his engagement in human trafficking. I’m not sure what is so difficult about this for everyone in the media to understand.”
Abrego Garcia was accused by a confidential informant of being a member of the MS-13 gang in New York. His family has maintained that he fled El Salvador due to gang violence and that he has never lived in New York. He has no criminal record.
He was not supposed to be deported due to a judge’s order based on a legitimate fear that he would be persecuted by a local gang.
Amid the questions about how far to go rhetorically, one of the problems Democrats face is that rhetoric is one of the only tools available.
Senate Minority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.) indirectly put a finer point on that issue. In a statement calling for Abrego Garcia’s return on Tuesday, he noted that he and 24 other Senate Democrats signed onto a letter urging top administration officials to heed the Supreme Court’s ruling.
But much to their chagrin, trying to build a groundswell of support in the public sphere is one of the few things they can tangibly do.
“It’s not like you can pass a bill,” a second Senate Democratic aide said. “It’s mostly in the courts and public opinion.”
