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‘This is a constitutional crisis’: Rep. Ansari to visit wrongfully deported man in El Salvador [1]

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Date: 2025-04

Democratic U.S. Rep. Yassamin Ansari announced Wednesday that she is planning to travel to an El Salvador megaprison to attempt to visit a Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to that country, but who the Trump administration refuses to help return to America.

“Kilmar Abrego Garcia should be home in Maryland right now,” Ansari said in a press release announcing her intentions to try to visit Abrego Garcia. “His illegal abduction and the subsequent complete dismissal of the Supreme Court ruling is deeply disturbing. Our rights shouldn’t be revoked to propagate Trump’s authoritarian agenda. This is a constitutional crisis.”

Abrego Garcia’s case has sparked international controversy and a legal challenge seeking his return. The Trump administration has acknowledged that he was mistakenly sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador — a judge years ago ruled that he could not be deported — with no due process, and the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously last week that Abrego Garcia should be returned.

But President Donald Trump has said he won’t seek for Abrego Garcia’s return and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, whose government is being paid $6 million to house American deportees, said he wouldn’t comply even if Trump asked.

Ansari’s announcement came hours after Maryland Democratic U.S. Sen. Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia, but was denied entry to the notorious Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo prison, or CECOT.

Van Hollen met with El Salvador Vice President Félix Ulloa and said his requests for contact with Abrego Garcia were rebuffed.

Other federal officials have had no problem accessing the facility, which has been at the subject of multiple allegations of human rights abuses, including Republican congressmen and members of the Trump administration.

The Trump administration itself has admitted that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was an “error” and the judge in the case has indicated that she is now considering contempt proceedings against the administration for failing to facilitate his return.

“If this can happen to Mr. Garcia, it can happen to any of us,” Ansari said. “My parents fled an authoritarian regime in Iran where people ‘disappeared’ — I refuse to sit back and watch it happen here too.”

In an interview with BBC, Ansari said that the House Oversight Committee is looking to send an “official delegation” to El Salvador and wants to see more of her colleagues visit the prison and put pressure on the administration to bring more transparency to the process.

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[1] Url: https://azmirror.com/briefs/this-is-a-constitutional-crisis-rep-ansari-to-visit-wrongfully-deported-man-in-el-salvador/

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