A lawmaker is organizing a third trip to El Salvador to see the mistakenly deported man Kilmar Abrego Garcia, as Rep. Glenn Ivey (D-Md.) heads to the Central American nation with the hopes of visiting his constituent.
Ivey is pushing to meet not just with Abrego Garcia but others he says are being wrongly imprisoned in the country without any judicial review.
“We want to go to see if we can move this thing forward, trying to get Kilmar back, trying to get the Trump administration to comply with the Supreme Court order,” Ivey said during an interview with The Hill.
The high court determined that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return. But the White House has not done so, arguing the order means they need to send a plane should the government of El Salvador seek to return him. Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has said he will not.
“The administration still hasn’t complied, and we got to keep the pressure on,” Ivey said.
Ivey is pushing to meet not just with Abrego Garcia, who has since been placed in a lower security prison, but also others being held in the country’s terrorism confinement center, the notorious prison known as CECOT for its acronym in Spanish.
Having fled his native El Salvador as a teen due to gang violence, Abrego Garcia was protected by an immigration judge in 2019 from being deported to the country.
But Abrego Garcia is among a group of roughly 200 Venezuelan and Salvadoran men brought to El Salvador through flights on March 15. A Justice Department attorney later said he was removed due to an “administrative error.”
While Abrego Garcia’s removal gained attention due to the administration’s mistake, Ivey said others are also facing life imprisonment abroad when it’s unclear what crimes they are being accused of and without getting a chance to challenge the Trump administration’s claims.
“What happens with these guys who haven’t been convicted of anything, anywhere, but they’re in a prison system that never lets people out? Because it really could turn into a life without parole for people who haven’t been convicted of anything,” Ivey said.
A review by the Cato Institute found that of the 90 men imprisoned in the country for whom information on their immigration status was available, 50 came to the U.S. through legal pathways.
The Supreme Court has also weighed in on that matter, both stepping in to halt additional flights and determining that those removed must have sufficient notice and opportunity to challenge their removal.
Ivey’s trip is the third organized visit seeking to verify the well-being of Abrego Garcia.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) traveled to the country in April, ultimately pressuring the Bukele administration for a meeting with Abrego Garcia, with Salvadoran officials transporting Abrego Garcia to the senator’s hotel.
In a meeting with Vice President Félix Ulloa, the Salvadoran official also told Van Hollen that Abrego Garcia had no criminal record in the country and cited payment from the U.S. as a factor in keeping him imprisoned.
However, a second trip to El Salvador organized by a quartet of House members did not score a meeting with Abrego Garcia.
Weeks later, members from the El Salvador Caucus also made a trip to the country, but the mostly GOP group did not try and meet with Abrego Garcia.
Ivey likewise plans to meet with Salvadoran officials, opposition leaders, Salvadoran political activists and U.S. Embassy officials on the ground.
The Maryland Democrat argued El Salvador is taking a big risk in doing the Trump administration’s bidding by imprisoning men in exchange for $15 million.
Bukele has worked to shed the country’s image as a dangerous destination, often proudly noting it is no longer the murder capital of the world.
Achieving that, however, came amid the widespread detainment of tens of thousands of its own alleged gang members to crack down on violence that ravaged the country for decades.
“These issues are going to undermine that, because it’s starting to make them look like a gulag instead of a surf destination. And I think Bukele, like, cares a lot about that, because it’s a big opportunity for him to try and build out another piece of a new economy for El Salvador,” Ivey said.
“So I think he’s got a lot to lose,” he added.
President Trump, too, Ivey said, is taking on a risky endeavor.
“I don’t really understand why the Trump administration is fighting this so hard, but now, since they’ve drawn such deep lines in the sand, they’re going to lose this eventually,” he said.
“Or they’re going to have to turn it into a constitutional crisis with the Supreme Court.”
