The deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia has become a political flashpoint that Democrats are struggling to navigate, with the party split over how loudly to protest his detention in a Salvadoran megaprison.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) became the first Democratic senator to travel to El Salvador this week to visit Abrego Garcia, who resided in Maryland. Other Democrats are planning trips as they accuse the administration of violating Abrego Garcia’s due process rights.
The uproar marks an early test of the Trump administration’s crackdown on immigration as a federal judge threatens contempt proceedings over the White House’s refusal to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return.
But the Democrats have seemingly painted themselves into a corner, as Republicans accuse them of caring more about an illegal immigrant than the safety of Americans. Over the last several days, the White House has joined congressional Republicans in highlighting Abrego Garcia’s alleged association with MS-13 and domestic abuse allegations by his wife in court.
Abrego Garcia’s lawyers dispute the gang allegations, and his wife has defended him as a “loving partner and father.”
“I am reminded of the expression, ‘Don’t interrupt when your opponent self-destructs,’” Rep. Eric Burlison (R-MO) told the Washington Examiner. “If the Democrats want to stake their reputation on defending a proven member of MS-13, so be it. This only further demonstrates how badly Trump has broken them. Americans care more about keeping our families and communities safe.”
Rep. Andy Harris (R-MD), chairman of the conservative Freedom Caucus, said in an interview that he was a “bit surprised” that Democrats are “tone deaf” after the 2024 election saw immigration and border security as among voters’ top concerns.
“I think they’ve misread the results of the 2024 election, when Americans pretty clearly said they want illegal aliens to go back, especially the ones that poured in during President Biden’s term, and they certainly want gang members to be deported,” Harris said.
Some Democrats do not think that Abrego Garcia’s deportation should be the top priority of the party. Gavin Newsom (D-CA), the progressive governor of California who has more recently pivoted to the right, said Wednesday he thinks Abrego Garcia’s detention is a shiny object that distracts from the market turmoil over Trump’s tariffs.
“Don’t get distracted by distractions, we say. And here, we zig and zag,” Newsom said. “This is the debate they want … Those that believe in the rule of law defending it, but it’s a tough case, because people are really — are they defending MS-13? Are they defending, you know, someone who’s out of sight, out of mind in El Salvador? I mean, we’re perfect sheep.”
That sentiment extends to Capitol Hill as well, with some Democratic staffers worrying that they are falling into a Republican messaging trap once again.
“As much as I think many of us are outraged over what has happened, I don’t think this is something that our voters care about deeply,” said a Senate Democratic aide, speaking on the condition of anonymity to reflect candidly on the situation. “I think we are better suited to be speaking about the potential … cuts to Medicaid and the economy and kitchen table issues.”
“We fell right into the immigration trap this past election cycle, and I’m not interested in watching us do this all over again,” the person added.
Nonetheless, those voices have been largely drowned out by other Democrats intent on drawing attention to what they say is a constitutional crisis. Van Hollen, who represents Maryland in the Senate, attracted headlines on Wednesday when he claimed the Trump administration is paying El Salvador to keep Abrego Garcia detained. On Thursday, Van Hollen announced he’d been able to meet him.
House Republicans denied a request to send a larger congressional delegation to El Salvador to check on Abrego Garcia’s welfare, but Democrats are considering self-funding a trip on their own to bring attention to the issue.
“I don’t agree with that at all,” Rep. Becca Balint (D-VT) said of the response by Newsom and Democrats like him. “We CAN do two things at the same time and we MUST. I think it’s utterly absurd to say we shouldn’t call out the lawlessness of this administration. If we don’t stand up for the rule of law, we don’t have a democracy.”
“Besides, the midterm elections are a long ways off and we need to be fighting for this democracy or we will lose it,” Balint told the Washington Examiner. “And we can do that while also talking about Trump’s disastrous, asinine tariff policy and unnecessary trade war.”
Underlying the uproar is Democrats’ insistence that the Trump administration is “lying” about Abrego Garcia and the facts of his case.
Van Hollen maintains that the administration has failed to prove that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13, a claim that is based on a confidential source’s assessment upon his initial detention. Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, Lucia Curiel, disputed the credibility of the officer who brought forward the allegation.
His wife requested a 2021 protective order in court documents alleging domestic abuse, but the couple later reconciled and the case was dismissed.
The White House has also faced scrutiny for claiming that it has no power to return Abrego Garcia now that he is on foreign soil.
He had limited protected status, with a judge ruling in 2019 that Abrego Garcia had a credible fear for his life in his home country, but was sent back anyway in what Trump officials blamed on an administrative error.
“I still believe that facts matter in this country, despite the fact that our president lies over and over again,” Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), the Democratic freshman class president, said in an interview with BBC News. “The truth is that Mr. Garcia was here legally in this country, was granted temporary protected status, has a U.S. citizen wife and kids, and he did not get due process.”
The National Republican Congressional Committee has taken advantage of the Democratic divide, pushing out emails targeting vulnerable House Democrats over support for Abrego Garcia. In one email, the NRCC called him the “new poster child for the Democrat Party.”
“Only in the Democrat Party can you have a rap sheet, gang ties, a blatant disregard for the law, and still get held up as a hero,” NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said. “Democrats aren’t selling the American Dream anymore. They’re pushing a nightmare.”
On Wednesday, the White House leaned into the messaging by bringing to its press briefing the mother of Rachel Morin, a woman raped and murdered by an Salvadoran fugitive in Maryland.
House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) has taken a nuanced view, telling CNN that “violent felons here unlawfully should be deported.”
SUPREME COURT ORDERS TRUMP ADMINISTRATION TO RETURN MISTAKENLY DEPORTED MAN FROM EL SALVADOR
“We need to secure the border. We do have a broken immigration system. It does need to be fixed in a comprehensive and bipartisan way. At the same period of time, we are going to defend Dreamers and farm workers and law-abiding immigrant families,” Jeffries said.
He told the outlet that the United States is in a “crisis across the board” and the Supreme Court should “aggressively enforce” its ruling partially backing the federal judge demanding Abrego Garcia’s return.
Samantha-Jo Roth contributed to this report.
