Last week, Rep. Ron Estes, R-Kansas, visited the notorious CECOT prison in El Salvador on a Congressional junket. On the government’s dime, Estes and six other Republican members of Congress participated in the trip. Despite their requests, no House Democrats have received permission to participate in similar investigations.
While Estes was warmly received, Salvadoran authorities did all they could to thwart a visit by U.S. Sen. Chris Van Holland, D-Maryland.
You see, Estes was there to laud prison officials for accepting hundreds of U.S. migrants, whom the Trump administration has deported to the Central American country.
Van Hollen’s purpose, on the other hand, was to assure inmate Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who resides in Van Hollen’s Maryland, that he would do everything in his power to see that he is released because he has no criminal record nor is he a member of a terrorist gang, as had been alleged.
The Trump administration knows this. In fact, it has admitted that Abrego Garcia’s deportation to El Salvador was an “administrative mistake.”
They’ve done nothing to correct that mistake. In fact, they’re now accusing Abrego Garcia of other crimes.
Which proves the point that if the Trump administration believes Abrego Garcia has committed a crime then he should be brought before a judge, something the government appears unwilling to do.
Abrego Garcia, who has lived in the United States for 14 years as a legal migrant, fled El Salvador for fear of gang violence. Under a U.S. immigration judge’s order, Agrego Garcia was shielded from deportation to El Salvador in 2019, ruling that he would likely face persecution there by local gangs that had terrorized his family. He also was given a federal permit to work in the United States, where he was a metal worker.
Last week, President Donald Trump hosted Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele and the two discussed the imprisoned Abrego Garcia’s fate.
Bukele, who brands himself as the “coolest dictator” in the world, said he would continue to detain the innocent man as long as it pleased Trump.
Sen. Van Hollen reported that in his visit with El Salvador’s Vice President Félix Ulloa, he was informed the Trump administration is paying El Salvador to keep Abrego Garcia behind bars.
How unnerving to know your life has an actual price.
The U.S. government is paying El Salvador $6 million to “house” the 261 men deported by the Trump administration on March 15. Prior to their departure, none had received a hearing, as guaranteed by U.S. law.
Now incarcerated under shocking conditions — the mega-prison is known for exposing prisoners to torture, and cruel, degrading, and inhumane treatment and punishment — the men have no access to lawyers or their families, no rights of due process, no idea if they will ever be released.
President Trump has also expressed interest in sending U.S. citizens to the CECOT prison.
“I love that,” he said. “I’d like to get them out of the country.”
