House Republican committee chairs have blocked House Democrats from leading their own congressional delegation to El Salvador after they authorized sending a Republican delegation.
The latest declined request came on Friday when House Oversight Committee chair Rep. James Comer (R-Ky) said in a letter that he won’t let Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) lead their own congressional delegation to El Salvador to check on the status of the migrants Trump deported to the notorious prison there, a majority of whom have no criminal record.
Comer’s letter was one day after House Homeland Security Committee Chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) denied requests from Democrats to visit the jail as part of an official congressional delegation.
But, while Republicans are denying Democrats’ requests they are authorizing official trips for Republican members of Congress.
Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), the chair of the House Ways & Means Committee led a delegation to El Salvador this week and visited the prison.
At least seven House Republicans were present on the trip, according to a photo posted to X by the U.S. embassy in El Salvador.
Joining Smith on the trip were Republican Reps. Kevin Hern (Okla.), Carol Miller (W.Va.), Claudia Tenney (N.Y.), Ron Estes (Kan.), Mike Kennedy (Utah), and Riley Moore (W.Va.)
Smith and Moore both tweeted out photos from the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT) prison where Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man the Trump administration admitted to sending there by mistake, is being held and others.
