Oregon lawmaker latest Democrat to visit El Salvador for deported illegal migrant Abrego Garcia

A Democratic congresswoman from Oregon is the latest lawmaker to announce she will travel to El Salvador to advocate for the release of deported illegal migrant Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.

"A legal U.S. resident has had his due process rights ripped away and is now being held indefinitely in a foreign prison," Dexter said in a statement. "This is not just one family's nightmare; it is a constitutional crisis that should outrage every single one of us. I will travel to El Salvador to confront this crisis head on. Our constitutional rights are on the line."   

Abrego Garcia entered the U.S. illegally in 2011 and was issued with a deportation order in 2019. Two previous judges found he was likely affiliated with MS-13.

Trump administration officials acknowledged in court that his deportation had been an administrative error, although now some top Trump officials say he was correctly removed and contend he's a member of the notorious MS-13 gang. 

One immigration judge in 2019 found that Garcia had not sufficiently refuted evidence of MS-13 affiliation and was thus removable to anywhere other than El Salvador because of a threat from a rival gang. This is called a withholding order.

The Supreme Court acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a 2019 withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador and that the removal to El Salvador was "therefore illegal." The Court stressed that the government must facilitate his release from custody in El Salvador and treat his case as if he were never deported.

The case has drawn a wedge between Democrats and Republicans. 

The Trump administration argues Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member who is suspected of human trafficking and has a violent history of abusing his wife. On Friday, Trump released an image of Abrego Garcia's hand showing purported MS-13 gang tattoos. 

Democrats like Dexter say he is a hard-working Maryland resident who has had his due process rights stripped away after being sent to the notorious prison. 

Critics, including Republicans and Trump allies, have questioned why Van Hollen would travel abroad to advocate for someone with alleged gang ties and a record of domestic abuse while remaining silent on victims like Rachel Morin, a Maryland woman murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2023.

"We are not the same," the White House captioned the image while tagging Van Hollen.

Fox News' Greg Wehner, Kerri Urbahn and Jasmine Baehr contributed to this report.