Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) said that because of El Salvador’s actions in the detainment of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal alien, Congress should be looking at removing federal aid to the country and warned that Democrats will remember countries that helped the Trump administration when they are back in power.
During his interview on “Pod Save America,” Raskin said, “We should be talking about cutting aid to El Salvador right now.” He further added that he does not believe El Salvador President Nayib Bukele’s claim that he cannot return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
‘That’s an assault on our Constitution and our people.’
“He’s our legal agent in this dubious arrangement they’ve created,” Raskin said, referring to Bukele. “Of course he’s got the power to return him. So he and Trump are just acting like a couple of dictators having fun at the expense of a man’s life and his family, and they want to be able to do that all over the place.”
Raskin said Democrats need to do a better job of connecting with democratic movements and governments across the world to “try to prevent the spread of the lawlessness and the fascist chaos that has been unleashed against us.”
“If and when we come back to power, and we will, we are not going to look kindly upon people who facilitated, to use the word of the day, who facilitated authoritarianism in our country. That’s an assault on our Constitution and our people,” he continued.
Democrats maintain that the Trump administration is violating the Supreme Court’s recent ruling on the matter, where they said the U.S. must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return. The same ruling also noted the “scope of the term ‘effectuate’ in the district court’s order is, however, unclear, and may exceed the district court’s authority,” and that the lower court “should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
As of Monday, four House Democrats are in El Salvador to continue advocating for Abrego Garcia’s release after Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) did the same last week. Reps. Robert Garcia (Calif.), Maxwell Frost (Fla.), Yassamin Ansari (Ariz.), and Maxine Dexter (Ore.) say they are there to continue the conversation and not let Abrego Garcia, who the U.S. government says is an MS-13 gang member, be forgotten.
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