Democrat Congressman Glenn Ivey (MD) has travelled to El Salvador to visit deported “Maryland Man” Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has been at the center of an ongoing row about President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport suspected foreign gang members.
Ivey’s visit to El Salvador comes a month after Democrat Senator Chris Van Hollen, who also represents a Maryland district, visited Garcia.
The Supreme Court has ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Garcia’s return to the US, but so far the Salvadorean citizen, who is accused of being a member of violent gang MS-13, has remained in El Salvador.
“The court orders for him to come back so that he can have his day in court,” Ivey told WBAL News Radio.
“We’re not afraid of him having his day in court. That’s what due process is all about. He needs to be brought back so he can have his day in court.”
Democrat lawmakers and opponents of President Trump have claimed that Garcia was wrongly deported to El Salvador, where he was confined in President Bukele’s Center for Terrorist Confinement (CECOT) as part of a $6 million deal with the US to house foreign gang members deported from the US using the Alien Enemies Act.
Garcia was detained by ICE in March and deported to El Salvador after President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act.
He entered the US unlawfully in 2012 and was identified as a member of MS-13 when he was arrested by law enforcement in 2019. He was suspected of being involved in human trafficking.
In that same year, an immigration court determined that “the determination that the Respondent [Abrego Garcia] is a gang member appears to be trustworthy and is supported by other evidence in the record, namely, information contained in the Gang Field Interview Sheet.”
However, Garcia was granted a deportation withholding order because it was feared his life would be in danger if he were deported back to El Salvador.
Congressman Ivey will return to the US on Tuesday.