After traveling to El Salvador, GOP blocks Dems from doing the same
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Rep. Robert Garcia speaks to reporters at the U.S. Capitol on April 10. Photo: Andrew Harnik/Getty Images
Another House Republican committee chair said Friday he will not grant Democrats' request to lead a congressional delegation to El Salvador to check on the status of deportees being held there.
Why it matters: Republicans sent their own official delegation to the country this week to visit the notorious maximum security prison housing deportees and express their support for President Trump's deportation policies.
- Rep. Jason Smith (R-Mo.), the chair of the House Ways & Means Committee, led the delegation, as Axios first reported on Thursday.
- 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.
Driving the news: House Oversight Committee chair James Comer (R-Ky.), who was not on Smith's CODEL, said in a letter released Friday that he won't let Reps. Robert Garcia (D-Calif.) and Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) lead their own.
- Citing the two Democrats' "active hostility" to his investigations of the Biden administration's border policies, Comer called the request "absurd."
- He also noted that Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.) was able to meet Thursday with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an erroneously deported Maryland man whose return to the U.S. has been ordered by the Supreme Court.
- "If you also wish to meet with him, you can spend your own money. But I will not approve a single dime of taxpayer funds for use on the excursion you have requested," Comer wrote.
Zoom out: Comer's letter comes after House Homeland Security Committee chair Mark Green (R-Tenn.) refused a similar request from Rep. Delia Ramirez (D-Ill.).
- Democrats had hoped to be able to organize CODELs to visit Abrego Garcia, rather than traveling in their personal capacity, because such official trips afford more oversight and security resources.
- Some lawmakers are considering trying to join a CODEL being organized Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) — who, like Van Hollen, has an easier time than House members getting approval for official trips.
Between the lines: The rejections are particularly stinging for Democrats because Republicans were able to organize their own official travel to the country this week.
- Smith and Rep. Riley Moore (R-W.Va.) both tweeted out photos from the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, where Garcia and other deportees are being held.
