House Republican committee chairs are blocking Democrats’ attempts to travel to El Salvador and visit the CECOT prison facility, amid growing attention to the Trump administration’s mistaken deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R-Ky.) and Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) rejected the Democratic requests to use committee funds for Congressional delegation (CODEL) trips. Comer dismissed the request as “absurd,” while Green argued it would be a “waste of taxpayer dollars.”
This decision comes shortly after Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) traveled to El Salvador and met with Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national previously living in Maryland. The Supreme Court has ruled that the Trump administration should facilitate his return.
Ironically, House Republicans are currently visiting El Salvador and the CECOT prison. A group led by House Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith (R-Mo.) made the trip earlier this week.
Comer specifically turned down a request from Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) to visit the prison, check on Abrego Garcia’s wellbeing, and conduct further oversight.
“It is absurd that you both displayed active hostility for over two years toward the Committee’s oversight of the Biden Border Crisis… yet now, you are seeking travel at Committee expense to meet with foreign gang members,” Comer wrote in his Friday letter rejecting the request.
Comer claimed that photos showed Van Hollen “enjoying margaritas garnished with cherry slices with the foreign gang member.” Van Hollen countered in a press conference, stating an aide to El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele had placed the drinks on the table, and neither he nor Abrego Garcia touched them. Allegations that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13 stem from a confidential tip and are contested by him and his family.
“If you also wish to meet with him, you can spend your own money,” Comer told Garcia and Frost. “But I will not approve a single dime of taxpayer funds for use on the excursion you have requested. Your request is denied.”
Garcia responded on X, stating the denial “won’t stop us from doing our jobs.”
“Let’s be clear, the Trump administration admitted the deportation was a mistake, they have presented no evidence he was in MS-13, and they are defying the Supreme Court,” Garcia said.
Green also refused Democratic requests for a trip to El Salvador.
“There is no excuse for Democrats to waste taxpayer dollars visiting and defending a transnational gang member and reported domestic abuser,” Green said Thursday, citing a 2021 protective order request filed by Abrego Garcia’s wife. “If Democrats care so much about defending this individual, they can use their own personal credit cards—not taxpayers’ money—to virtue-signal to their radical base.”
His statement followed Rep. Delia Ramirez’s (D-Ill.) request for an official CODEL to investigate the Abrego Garcia case, as reported by Axios.
Still, other House Republicans have found value in visiting El Salvador and touring the CECOT facility.
