The House GOP’s elections arm is offering to foot the bill for any future Democratic lawmakers’ trips to El Salvador after multiple progressive lawmakers traveled there in protest of the Trump administration’s deportation policies.
The National Republican Congressional Committee (NRCC) made the public offering on Monday – but any takers have to provide real-time video evidence of the visit.
‘If out-of-touch House Democrats are so desperate to cozy up to violent gang members, the least they can do is let Americans watch the show,’ NRCC spokesman Mike Marinella said.
‘We’ll pay for the plane tickets, they just can’t forget to smile for the camera while they sell out their constituents.’
Progressive Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., was in El Salvador last week, where he met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant married to an American citizen. The administration says Abrego Garcia is an MS-13 gang member with a violent history.
Democrats, in contrast, have painted him as a Maryland father and husband wrongfully deported under the Trump administration’s sweeping immigration plans.
Four House Democrats – Reps. Maxwell Frost, D-Fla., Robert Garcia, D-Calif., Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., and Maxine Dexter, D-Ore. – are currently in El Salvador with Abrego Garcia’s family lawyer in an effort to secure his release.
Frost told Fox News host Will Cain on Monday that they had not been able to meet with him.
In their press release announcing the trip, the group said it was not funded by taxpayer dollars, though it did not say how it was funded.
It comes amid President Donald Trump’s standoff with the courts over his administration’s deportation of suspected Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gang members to El Salvador.
Democrats and human rights groups argue that the White House is denying due process rights to deported individuals, while supporters say the illegal immigrants’ hearings and deportation orders are sufficient evidence of due process.
The Supreme Court upheld a lower court’s decision earlier this month that ordered the Trump administration to arrange Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. The court ordered the U.S. ‘to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.’
Republicans, meanwhile, are eager to tie Democrats to suspected criminals being deported to an El Salvador prison – particularly after border security and immigration proved potent issues for the GOP in the 2024 elections.
The NRCC’s Senate counterpart, the National Republican Senatorial Committee (NRSC), released a video on X with a message to Democrats: ‘¡Bienvenidos a El Salvador Senate Dems! Democrats should feel free to make their trip to hang out with MS-13 gangbangers one-way.’
The 40-second video is a vacation-style clip advertising El Salvador as ‘the destination for Democrats seeking the thrill of bringing violent criminal illegal aliens back to America.’
‘Come witness Trump Derangement Syndrome in its purest form,’ the voiceover says. ‘So, what are you waiting for, Senate Democrats?’