More congressional Democrats are preparing to travel to El Salvador to meet with government officials and visit an established MS-13 gang member deported there by the Trump administration, including potential 2028 presidential contender Sen. Cory Booker of New Jersey.
The planned visits come amid growing concern over the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national now imprisoned in his home country after Trump officials accused him of gang ties, which the Justice Department verified with released documents late Wednesday.
Booker, the chamber’s No. 4 Democrat, is organizing the trip, Politico reported.
Separately, Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen traveled to El Salvador on Wednesday, following through on his pledge to visit the country if Abrego Garcia remained in custody. He had also sought a meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele during Bukele’s visit to the United States.
Van Holland’s visit was soundly criticized by Maryland resident Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel was brutally maimed and murdered at the hands of an illegal alien in August of 2023.
Democrats keep claiming the information that Kilmer Armado Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 member claiming is flimsy.
But newly released DOJ documents show the information that the immigration judge and the appeals court rulings had that he was a MS-13 member is strong. pic.twitter.com/lzqUvsuo0D— John R Lott Jr. (@JohnRLottJr) April 17, 2025
Morin spoke at the White House during a press conference Wednesday as a “special guest” of press secretary Karoline Leavitt, during which she criticized him for going while providing shocking details of how Rachel was murdered.
“I just don’t understand this,” adding she was outraged that “a senator from Maryland who didn’t even acknowledge — or barely acknowledged — my daughter and the brutal death that she endured, leaving her five children without a mother” chose to “use my tax money to fly to El Salvador to bring back a person … who isn’t even an American citizen.”
“A lot of you don’t know the whole story about Rachel and about the crime that was committed against her,” she continued. “They kept most of it close to their chest, the detectives, because they didn’t want to do anything to hurt the case. They wanted to keep the integrity of the case, so they kept everything close. I sat for the last two weeks in her trial and we saw layer upon layer upon layer of evidence against the accused, an Illegal immigrant from El Salvador.