Arizona congresswoman arrives in El Salvador to visit man mistakenly deported

PHOENIX (AZFamily) — A group of U.S. congressmembers, including one from Arizona, has arrived in El Salvador to visit the man who was wrongly deported to an El Salvador prison in March.

Attorney General Pam Bondi has said Kilmar Abrego Garcia “is not coming back to our country,” despite the U.S. Supreme Court ruling that the administration must “facilitate” his release.

Arizona Rep. Yassamin Ansari joined Reps. Robert Garcia, Maxwell Frost and Maxine Dexter on a trip to El Salvador in an effort to pressure the Trump administration to abide by the Supreme Court order.

The trip is not being funded by taxpayer dollars, House Democrats have said.

“My parents fled an authoritarian regime in Iran where people were ‘disappeared’ – I refuse to sit back and watch it happen here, too. Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s illegal abduction and President Trump’s complete disregard of due process and a unanimous Supreme Court ruling are deeply disturbing. We should all be appalled by this treatment by the United States government,” Congresswoman Ansari said.

“I’m in El Salvador to advocate for the Trump Administration to facilitate his safe return home, and make sure Trump’s attack on our Constitution and due process stops now. Trump has already threatened to illegally deport ‘home-growns’ and American citizens. If this can happen to Mr. Abrego Garcia, it can happen to any of us. This is a constitutional crisis.”

Democrats are calling on the Trump administration to give Abrego Garcia due process and not overstep the courts.

Republicans are criticizing Democrats for defending a man whom Trump and White House officials claim is an MS-13 gang member, despite the fact that he has not been charged with any gang-related crimes.

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