Inside Democrats' scramble to travel to El Salvador

• Garcia and Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) are trying to secure GOP authorization to lead a congressional delegation to visit deportees at El Salvador's Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), Axios first reported Tuesday.
• Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) is leaving Wednesday to travel to the Central American country. Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) is also planning a trip, as Axios first reported.

What they're saying: "We need to spring into action. ... You can't just put up statements. That doesn't mean anything," Garcia told Axios in a phone interview on Tuesday night.

• "I think that it's important to say what we're thinking and what our next steps are, but we've got to show action," he added.
• "We have to do similar kinds of things for the others who are victims of this dystopian attack on our Constitutional rights," said Rep. Becca Balint (D-Vt.). "This president is dangerous and we can't let this go."

Zoom out: For months, Democrats have been dogged by the question of how best to demonstrate and display opposition to the Trump administration.

• The party's liberal base has been demanding lawmakers throw out their usual playbook and try to match Trump's shock-and-awe tactics with outside-the-box plays of their own.
• Traveling to El Salvador is the latest iteration of a progressive and resistance-oriented strategy that has also involved protesting outside federal agencies and heckling Trump's speech to Congress.
• Some in the more establishment wing of the party have bristled at that approach, arguing it makes the party look frenetic without securing any concrete wins.

What we're hearing: The issue of deportations — particularly Trump's suggestion that deportations of "homegrown" criminals could be next — is lighting up lawmakers' phone lines.

• Democratic aides and lawmakers told Axios they were bombarded Tuesday with calls from constituents and activists, similar to how DOGE and tariffs have dominated their switchboards in past months.
• "It's a lot," one House Democrat told Axios when asked about the call volume they have received on the issue.
• Said another House Democrat: "I just came from a round-table with two Dem activist groups and all they wanted to talk about was El Salvador."

Reality check: The sentiment within the party about rallying behind deportees is not universal.

• The second House Democrat who spoke anonymously, a centrist, called the deportation issue a "soup du jour," arguing Trump is "setting a trap for the Democrats, and like usual we're falling for it."
• "Rather than talking about the tariff policy and the economy ... the thing where his numbers are tanking, we're going to go take the bait for one hairdresser," they said, likely referring to Andry Hernandez Romero.
• Only if Trump tries to deport U.S. citizens, the lawmaker argued, will Democrats need to draw a "line in the sand" and "shut down the House."

What to watch: It's not clear whether House Democrats will be able to get their formal delegation.

• A spokesperson for House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.) declined to comment on whether he would grant Garcia and Frost permission to lead a CODEL.
• Garcia suggested Democrats may forge ahead anyway with something more informal, telling Axios: "We've been discussing already what the other options would be. Our intention is to go to El Salvador."
• As for the perspective that the issue is a political loser for Democrats, Garcia argued it is "total bullsh*t," saying "this is not just a deportation story ... this is a broader story about Donald Trump consolidating power."

Editor's note: This story has been updated with additional reporting.