FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Chairman Green for the Daily Caller: "Why I Rejected the Dems' Taxpayer-Funded Trip to Visit an Alleged Gangbanger"
WASHINGTON—Today, House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green, MD (R-TN) published an op-ed for the Daily Caller, explaining why he refused to allow House Homeland Democrats to use taxpayer dollars to visit Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a likely human trafficker and accused domestic abuser, in El Salvador. While Homeland Republicans have been focused on funding President Trump’s border security success, Democrats have prioritized visiting a violent criminal to gain media attention and promote their radical open-borders agenda.
Read the op-ed here or below.
Why I Rejected The Dems’ Taxpayer-Funded Trip To Visit An Alleged Gangbanger
Chairman Mark Green, MD (R-TN)
May 8, 2025
Daily Caller
By now, most Americans have been thoroughly embarrassed by the antics of Democrats on Capitol Hill in defense of Salvadoran national Kilmar Abrego Garcia—a known MS-13 gang member, accused domestic abuser, and likely human trafficker.
As more details come to light, Democrats planting their anti-immigration enforcement flag on his case has become even more repugnant.
We now know that Abrego Garcia’s current wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, filed for a protective order against him in 2020. In the request, Vasquez Sura said that Abrego Garcia told her former mother-in-law, “[E]ven if he kills [his wife] no one can do anything to him.” The violence Vasquez Sura details in the request is shocking and heartbreaking.
In 2021, she filed for a temporary order of protection against him on grounds of domestic violence. Then, in 2022, Abrego Garcia was pulled over by the Tennessee Highway Patrol, only for officers to discover eight individuals in his vehicle. One officer at the scene said, “He’s hauling these people for money.” Abrego Garcia said the vehicle belonged to his “boss,” an illegal alien jailed for human smuggling in 2020.
Just as clear as his troubling background are the facts of his case, but that has not stopped Democrats from turning it into a month-long story. Abrego Garcia was ordered removed by a federal judge in 2019, and earlier this year was returned to El Salvador. The judge who ordered Abrego Garcia removed also stated he could not be sent to El Salvador (or Guatemala—the decision is unclear), because the judge believed Salvadoran gang Barrio 18 posed a potential threat to his life. But we all know the truth—Abrego Garcia feared Barrio 18 because he was a member of their greatest rival.
That being said, following Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele’s recent war on the gangs in his country, Barrio 18 is hardly operating in the country at all today.
In a recent filing with the Supreme Court—which, contrary to Democrat talking points, has not held that Abrego Garcia must be returned to United States—the Trump administration explained that his membership in MS-13 should cost him the immigration status he held, given MS-13’s designation as a foreign terrorist organization. The filing also provided a reasonable explanation on how he ended up on a plane to El Salvador.
In any event, most sane, rational public officials would be glad this man was arrested and deported—but not congressional Democrats.
For example, Oregon Rep. Maxine Dexter speciously claimed Abrego Garcia was “illegally abducted.” One of the Democrats on my Committee, Illinois Rep. Delia Ramirez, bizarrely called the removal of MS-13 gang members like him “illegal, unconstitutional and inhumane.” California Rep. Robert Garcia, another House Homeland Democrat, declared late last month, “[W]e are organizing here in El Salvador” to build support for Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States. Just this week, former Homeland Democrat Glenn Ivey said he was planning to go to El Salvador and Honduras to “check on” illegal aliens removed to those countries.
You might wonder why Democrats were in El Salvador trying to return such a violent non-citizen to the United States.
Media attention and building a profile with their extremist base certainly seems like a possibility. After Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen spent taxpayer money to travel to the country and force a meeting with Abrego Garcia, numerous House Democrats decided they wanted in on the fawning corporate media coverage.
It is reprehensible that members of Congress want to provide aid and comfort to an illegal alien MS-13 gang member, wife-beater, and possible human trafficker. Using taxpayer money to do so is simply beyond the pale.
That’s why I was the first GOP chairman to publicly tell Democrats on my Committee that if they wanted to stage such photo-ops, they would do so on their own dime.
The contempt these members of Congress clearly have for taxpayers is palpable. Americans do not want known gang members walking free in their communities. They certainly do not want their hard-earned dollars being wasted by representatives, who desperate for social media attention, cozy up to degenerate gang members who pride themselves on violent crime and human trafficking.
But it goes deeper. Hill Democrats simply do not want the Trump administration to carry out the will of the people and enforce the laws. At their core, they oppose immigration enforcement, for extreme political and ideological reasons.
Why do they want to be members of Congress, where we write and pass laws, if they oppose the very enforcement of those laws?
Ultimately, it seems Democrats are not upset that he was removed and sent to El Salvador, but that he was removed at all. Their extreme behavior demonstrates why we need to fund President Trump’s security and enforcement agenda through reconciliation and codify the policies of landmark legislation like H.R. 2. As chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, that will remain my priority.
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