Axios reported that two House Democrats wrote to House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) on Tuesday to request approval for a CODEL or official congressional delegation to visit the El Salvador prison where some deportees are being sent by the Trump administration.
In the letter, Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said that a delegation will allow Democrats to conduct a “welfare check” on Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a national of El Salvador who is being held in the Centro de Confinamiento del Territorio (CECOT), a maximum-security prison located in Tecoluca.
Abrego Garca, whom the administration claims is a member of the MS-13 gang, was sent to El Salvador because of an “administrative mistake.” El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said that the idea of bringing him back is absurd, despite a ruling by the U.S. Supreme Court to do so.
Garcia and Frost wrote in their letter, “The Senate has already authorized CODEL to travel to CECOT”, and “the House should also be represented.”
Axios reported on Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.), the Democrat who is trying to organize a Senate delegation in El Salvador.
“We are ready to travel as quickly as possible. We will gladly invite any Republican members of the Committee to join us. We believe that since the Senate has already approved CODEL travel, the House should be represented,” Garcia & Frost wrote in a letter to Comer.
Democrats who have made Abrego Garca’s plight an issue of public interest could still make a trip to El Salvador informally if Comer declines the CODEL request. According to the report, a CODEL gives lawmakers security and oversight resources.
The letter was sent a day after Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) said he would travel to El Salvador to ensure Abrego Garca’s return. Van Hollen asked for a meeting between Bukele and El Salvador’s Ambassador to the U.S.
Van Hollen stated, “I urgently request that President Bukele meet with me during his visit to the United States to discuss the illegal imprisonment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a constituent of mine.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly reacted to media reports referring to Abrego Garcia as a “Maryland Man,” saying that he should be behind bars in El Salvador as well as the U.S. The White House called the media coverage “despicable.”
Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief-of-staff, stated Monday, “This individual is an El Salvadorian citizen. He was in the United States illegally and was sent back to his home country. That’s how you deport people back to their countries of origin.”