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The political battle over the deportation of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, where he is imprisoned based on a belief that he is a member of MS-13, has taken over the conversation in Washington for weeks. Several Democratic members of the House and Senate have already announced plans to follow Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland on trips to El Salvador – where he met with Garcia.
I said my main goal of this trip was to meet with Kilmar. Tonight I had that chance. I have called his wife, Jennifer, to pass along his message of love. I look forward to providing a full update upon my return. pic.twitter.com/U9y2gZpxCb
— Senator Chris Van Hollen (@ChrisVanHollen) April 18, 2025
Whether they’ll follow through, given President Nayib Bukele’s trolling, is another matter.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia, miraculously risen from the “death camps” & “torture”, now sipping margaritas with Sen. Van Hollen in the tropical paradise of El Salvador!🍹 pic.twitter.com/r6VWc6Fjtn
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) April 18, 2025
Political advisor James Carville had suggested that the deportations should be the “top agenda” for the party. But who actually benefits from this debate? Is this really the ground where Democrats want to make their stand against Donald Trump?
The legal side of the argument is a muddled question at the moment, as Jonathan Turley details, because of a dispute about what “facilitate” means in this instance – a question that will likely end up back at the Supreme Court. But the political question seems clearer: by leaning into a case with a bad fact pattern about an unsympathetic figure, Democrats are giving Republicans a wide opening to make the case their party has learned nothing from a 2024 election cycle where they lost in part thanks to the Biden administration’s open border policies and accusations of being soft on crime.
As Politico reports, it’s not just Democrats who are headed to El Salvador – Republicans are touting it themselves:
House Republicans took their own trip down to El Salvador this week to tour the prison, known as CECOT, where Abrego Garcia is being held. Several posted photos on social media that included prisoners in the background.
“It is unconscionable that Democrats in Congress are urging the release of more foreign criminals back into our country,” Ways and Means Committee Chair Jason Smith wrote in a post on X about the trip, which he led.
The reason for this is obvious when you look at polling. Ryan Girdusky, whose National Populist Newsletter tracks many trends related to immigration levels, recently participated in a poll conducted by Cygnal which found every political demographic favoring lower immigration levels, including a plurality of Democrats. And that’s for people who are coming here legally, as opposed to illegal migrants like Garcia, where a recent NPR/Ipsos poll found “a plurality of respondents say they support Trump’s call for mass deportation of all immigrants living in the US without legal status.”
In the immediate aftermath of the 2024 election in November, some smart Democratic voices in media and consulting acknowledged that border issues and soft-on-crime policies were things that needed to change in order to become a majority party again – along with getting away from the craziest claims of the trans and DEI agendas. Lo and behold, not even six months later, Democrats are still dug in on all these areas. And with the hottest name in Democratic politics right now being Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and her surging political tour, it looks like none of these lessons are going to survive. The progressive left is still in charge, and they’re still stuck on crazy.
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