Rep. Yassamin Ansari visited El Salvador, joining three other progressive Democratic members of Congress to declare President Donald Trump’s handling of deportations to the Central American country a “constitutional crisis.”
The delegation pressed April 21 for the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a man whom the Trump administration admitted was deported in error.
Despite an order by the U.S. Supreme Court to facilitate the man’s return to the United States, Trump administration officials said they will defer to El Salvador on the matter, and, later, wrote on social media that he is “never coming back” to the U.S.
“It isn’t just about Kilmar. It is the fact that our government is relentlessly going after any immigrant that’s trying to come to the United States, or is in the United States, without any regard for due process,” Ansari, D-Ariz., told reporters in El Salvador. “If they have not been convicted of a crime, they should not be imprisoned.”
“People trusted us,” she continued. “We turned our backs on them, and instead illegally deported them off to a prison where they have no answers, no access to counsel, no anything.”
Ansari traveled with Reps. Robert Garcia of California, Maxwell Frost of Florida, and Rep. Maxine Dexter of Oregon, all members of the House’s Progressive Caucus.
The Republican chair of the House Oversight Committee rejected their request to send an official congressional delegation to El Salvador. Instead Ansari paid for her trip out of pocket, spokesperson Kaitlin Hooker told The Arizona Republic.
The members of Congress are demanding Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States and, until then, a “daily proof of life.”
Trump administration fires back at Ansari
The Trump administration name-dropped Ansari in a news release that went out the day of her trip to El Salvador, calling the visit an “apology tour” for a “deported illegal immigrant gang member.”
The White House accused Ansari of staying silent on the recent arrests of four migrants in the Phoenix area who are “putting her region at risk.”
One of the migrants on that list, Edgar Guadalupe Jimenez-Aguilar, has been charged with crimes for his involvement in a cross-border criminal organization. A government investigation, which began in 2021, found he transported drugs and other undocumented migrants on behalf of the group.
The remaining three arrests referenced in the White House’s email were made during Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem’s recent visit to Arizona. The administration has accused those migrants of crimes that they have not been formally charged with.
For example, the White House’s news release said that Jose Escobar-Robles “is believed to be illegally funneling money to Mexico to benefit violent cartels engaged in drug smuggling and human trafficking.”
But Escobar-Robles was not charged with any financial crimes, drug trafficking or human trafficking crimes in the criminal complaint filed by an Immigration and Customs Enforcement officer on April 9, The Republic has previously reported. He instead was charged with re-entering the country after a previous deportation, a federal felony. The complaint does not mention a criminal history in Arizona or Texas.
Reached for comment, Ansari’s spokesperson accused the White House of “trying to distract from the fact that they are defying the Supreme Court and denying a US resident due process.”
Rep. Abe Hamadeh, Arizona’s other first-term member of Congress, also criticized his colleague’s visit to El Salvador.
Referencing the 2021 accusations of domestic violence against Abrego Garcia, Hamadeh called himself “the ONLY freshman Arizona Representative NOT fighting on behalf of an El Salvadoran illegal immigrant & accused gangbanger/wife-beater.”
Ansari represents Arizona’s 3rd Congressional District, which includes much of south Phoenix, downtown Phoenix, and parts of Glendale.
Read more on AZ Central.
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