El Salvador rejects Democratic legislators' request to meet with Kilmar Abrego Garcia

A delegation of four Democratic lawmakers, made up of Yassamin Ansari (Arizona), Maxine Dexter (Oregon), Maxwell Frost (Florida) and Robert Garcia (California), traveled to El Salvador to demand the return of Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran deported from the United States on March 16.

However, the Government of El Salvador has rejected the request for a visit by the four democrats claiming that it "does not correspond to an official visit."

Ábrego García was expelled along with 238 Venezuelans and 22 Salvadorans, in the framework of the heavy-handed immigration policy promoted by the Trump Administration, which counts the Salvadoran government as a key ally.

The previous week, Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen also visited El Salvador for the same purpose and, after negotiations, managed to meet with Ábrego García. According to Van Hollen, the deportee claimed to have been initially held in the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), a mega-prison for gang members, before being transferred to a penitentiary in Santa Ana, in the western part of the country.

"We are in a constitutional crisis. I’m in El Salvador to shine a light on Kilmar’s story and keep the pressure on Donald Trump to secure his safe return home. Rep. Ansari said in a video posted on her X account.

For her part, Congresswoman Dexter stated in another video on the same platform: "I am in El Salvador because I will not stand by while our country is thrown into a constitutional crisis. This is a moment to act. I will not rest until due process is upheld for all"

The Ábrego García case

The Trump Administration acknowledged that his deportation was the product of an "administrative error," but refuses to repatriate him, arguing that he is a member of the MS-13 gang, declared a global terrorist organization by Washington.

President Donald Trump claimed that Abrego Garcia is an illegal immigrant with an active deportation order and that two judges determined his membership in MS-13.

In addition, Trump noted that the Salvadoran was arrested with "rolls of money coming out of his sweatshirt" along with two MS-13 gang members and stopped for speeding while transporting seven people from Texas to Maryland.

However, Federal Judge Paula Xinis has questioned the evidence presented by the US government. According to Xinis, the indictment against Ábrego García is based solely on his wearing a Chicago Bulls cap, a hoodie and a vague statement from an informant linking him to MS-13 in New York, a place where, according to the judge, the Salvadoran never resided.

Xinis has asked the governments of the United States and El Salvador to allow the return of Abrego Garcia, who lived in Maryland prior to his deportation, but both have refused to comply with the request.

In the context of the collaboration between Washington and San Salvador, El Salvador has received 288 deportees in just over a month, including 252 Venezuelans, who remain in detention.