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Rep. Robert Garcia travels to El Salvador to advocate for Kilmar Abrego Garcia

April 23, 2025

Calling the Trump administration’s dismissal of a U.S. Supreme Court order to help facilitate the return of a Maryland man mistakenly deported a “constitutional crisis,” Rep. Robert Garcia — who recently returned from El Salvador to raise awareness about the case — said he will not let the issue die quietly.

“We are in a constitutional crisis when a U.S. president is defying the Supreme Court” — and a conservative court no less, Garcia said, referring to the fact that six of the nine Supreme Court justices were appointed by a Republican president, including three who were appointed by President Donald Trump during his first term in the Oval Office.

Garcia spoke with reporters outside his district office in Long Beach on Tuesday, April 22, after returning from El Salvador, where he traveled with three other House Democrats earlier this week to demand the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, is joined at a media conference by local immigrant rights advocates Gaby Hernandez of Órale, left, and Jessica Quintana of Centro CHA on Tuesday, April. 22, 2025, in Long Beach. The congressman and three other House Democrats traveled this week to El Salvador to demand the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man erroneously deported by the Trump administration. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

Rep. Robert Garcia, D-Long Beach, is joined at a media conference by local immigrant rights advocates Gaby Hernandez of Órale, left, and Jessica Quintana of Centro CHA on Tuesday, April. 22, 2025, in Long Beach. The congressman and three other House Democrats traveled this week to El Salvador to demand the release of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man recently deported by the current administration. (Photo by Howard Freshman, Contributing Photographer)

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Abrego Garcia is an immigrant with protected legal status who had been living with his wife and three children in Maryland before he was erroneously deported to Central America last month as part of Trump’s crackdown on illegal immigration.

The lawmakers had hoped to meet with Abrego Garcia, but, according to Garcia’s office, the Salvadoran government denied that request because they weren’t part of an official congressional delegation.

Garcia said it’s unprecedented for a president to defy a Supreme Court order and accused Trump of crossing a line that “puts our country, our Constitution, our democracy in danger.”

“The entire country has to be courageous and stand up in this moment and demand that this cannot happen,” he said. He added that Democrats will continue traveling to El Salvador and making noise until Abrego Garcia is released.

Democrats previously asked House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer, R-Kentucky, to authorize an official congressional delegation to El Salvador “to conduct a welfare check on Mr. Abrego Garcia, as well as others” deported by the Trump administration. But that request was never approved.

As a result, the four Democrats who traveled there this week did so without security and found ways to pay for the trip on their own that did not involve taxpayer dollars, according to Garcia’s office.

Sara Guerrero, a spokesperson for Garcia, said the Long Beach Democrat used money from his campaign to fund the trip. She did not have details on how the other lawmakers paid for their expenses.

Democratic Reps. Maxwell Frost of Florida, Yassamin Ansari of Arizona and Maxine Dexter of Oregon joined Garcia on the trip.

Garcia said the group spent a full day in El Salvador and met with U.S. Ambassador William Duncan (nominated by former President Joe Biden) as well as members of Abrego Garcia’s family and his attorney. The congressmembers also spoke with news outlets in El Salvador to share Abrego Garcia’s story, Garcia said.

The Trump administration has acknowledged that Abrego Garcia was erroneously deported.

But despite the admitted error, Trump administration officials maintain Abrego Garcia is a member of the notorious MS-13 gang — though he hasn’t been charged with any gang-related crimes — and White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt has said Abrego Garcia would “immediately be deported again” should he return to the U.S.

The White House press office also issued a statement Monday, saying the Democrats who traveled to El Salvador were “picking up their party’s mantle of prioritizing a deported illegal immigrant MS-13 gang member over the Americans they represent.”

And in response to Garcia’s criticisms, White House spokesperson Kush Desai said in an emailed statement Tuesday that “if the hill that Democrats want to die on is demanding the return of a violent illegal alien … we are happy to dig that grave for them.”

White House officials have also said they lack the authority to bring Abrego Garcia back now that he is in the custody of the Salvadoran government.

Democrats, in turn, have accused the Trump administration of blatantly ignoring a Supreme Court order.

Garcia said Abrego Garcia’s case is more than just about immigration.

“This is not just an immigration story. This is a human rights story,” Garcia said, later adding that all individuals, regardless of immigration status, have a right to due process in the U.S.

His remarks echoed similar comments recently made by Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland, who also traveled to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia days before Garcia and his colleagues flew there. (Van Hollen later reported that Abrego Garcia told the senator he’d been moved from a notorious Salvadoran prison known as CECOT to a detention center with better conditions, during a meeting that Van Hollen noted was staged by the Salvadoran government.)

In addition to advocating for Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S., House Democrats are demanding access to another man whom the Trump administration recently deported.

Andry José Hernández Romero, a gay Venezuelan national with a pending asylum case in the U.S., was deported a few weeks ago, and his family is unaware of his whereabouts, Garcia said. Gov. Gavin Newsom has also called for Romero’s return to the U.S., citing due process rights, according to news reports.

Garcia’s office said that after the visiting lawmakers met with the U.S. ambassador, Duncan sent a formal inquiry to the Salvadoran government regarding Romero’s well-being.

In a letter sent to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Duncan on Monday, the four House Democrats who traveled to El Salvador said Romero has no criminal record and alleged that the federal government hasn’t presented any evidence of crimes that he committed.

“The only evidence of any kind presented by immigration officials against Mr. Hernández Romero are two tattoos — crowns with the names of his parents — which they allege indicate his membership in the gang Tren de Aragua. … It is imperative the State Department facilitate his immediate release and access to legal representation,” they said in their letter.

Garcia said Tuesday his recent trip to El Salvador won’t be the last time Democrats travel there.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rep. Robert Garcia travels to El Salvador to advocate for Kilmar Abrego Garcia Orange County Register

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Rep. Robert Garcia travels to El Salvador to advocate for Kilmar Abrego Garcia

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