On Tuesday afternoon, Democratic Rep. Yassamin Ansari returned empty-handed to Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport from a trip to El Salvador.
Given the odds of her mission — to try to bring back Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the 29-year-old Maryland father whom the Trump administration wrongfully deported without due process — she considered the effort in itself a small victory.
"Fighting for due process, freedom and our constitutional rights is working,” she said in a press conference after getting off a flight from L.A. Tuesday afternoon. “We will not stop now, but we also have to recognize that this is about more than just Kilmar. What we are witnessing is a constitutional crisis.”
The Phoenix lawmaker, along with three Democratic colleagues — Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida and Maxine Dexter of Oregon — went to El Salvador in hopes of bringing Abrego Garcia home from El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison. The Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return, but the administration, despite admitting that deporting Abrego Garcia on March 15 was a mistake, has refused to bring him back.
After Republican Rep. James Comer denied authorization of the group’s request for a Congressional Member Delegation, the group went unofficially. Ansari paid out of pocket for her 36-hour trip.
The group met with Abrego Garcia’s lawyer, FaceTimed with his wife, Jennifer, and met with officials at the U.S. embassy. Through the embassy they requested to meet and check in with Abrego Garcia, but were denied. Ansari’s group then sent a letter to U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio Monday afternoon demanding daily proof of life updates of Abrego Garcia, as well as access to counsel and a safe return home. The State Department confirmed receiving the group’s letter, but Rubio has yet to respond, Ansari said.
Despite admitting its error, the administration has continued to paint Abrego Garcia as a member of the violent gang MS-13, a designated foreign terrorist organization, and has declared that he’ll “never” live in the U.S. again. Abrego Garcia has never been convicted of a crime, and his lawyers and family insist he isn’t a member of MS-13.
Apparently no one will ever know for sure, because the administration threw him into a Central American prison before he could plead his case in an American courtroom.
The intense media attention on Abrego Garcia’s case has Ansari, his lawyer, and his family concerned about a backlash against him. Abrego Garcia was last seen alive in what his lawyer, Chris Newman, called a “staged photo op” in a Monday press conference the El Salvadoran government set up last week with Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen. Since then neither government has confirmed his location or even whether he is alive.
On Monday evening, the lawmakers flew back to the United States via Los Angeles. They didn't have Abrego Garcia, but they insisted they made progress.
“As a direct result of our advocacy,” Ansari said. “The embassy has raised questions directly to President Nayib Bukele’s administration about the treatment of more than 250 Venezuelan migrants.”
Chuck Coughlin, the Phoenix political consultant who ran John McCain's 1986 Senate campaign, lauded Ansari’s trip, saying it draws attention to the Trump administration's lawless abdication of due process. “You’ve got to figure out ways to help people keep their eye on the ball," he said. "This administration is extraordinarily good at arranging the narrative.”
For Ansari and others, this work continues. More lawmakers are likely to trek to Central America, she said, to insist that the administration follow the law. She argues that the response to Abrego Garcia's case lets the Trump administration know how far it can encroach on the rights of other Americans.
“Frankly speaking, I cannot assure families that their rights will be messed with or denied by this government,” Ansari said. “That’s why I feel so compelled to escalate this issue and not let the story die.”
