Nashville Standard

House Committee on Homeland Security Chairman Mark E. Green has issued a statement addressing the interest shown by some Democrats on the committee in visiting Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador. The individual is identified as a Salvadoran national and member of the MS-13 gang who was deported from Maryland.

"There is no excuse for Democrats to waste taxpayer dollars visiting and defending a transnational gang member and reported domestic abuser. If Democrats care so much about defending this individual, they can use their own personal credit cards—not taxpayers’ money—to virtue-signal to their radical base," Green stated.

According to the U.S. Department of Justice, Garcia was known to have crossed the U.S. border illegally in 2012. In 2019, during a police interrogation with known MS-13 members, Garcia admitted his illegal status. His legal troubles included a temporary protection order filed against him by an ex-girlfriend in 2021 for domestic violence. Furthermore, he was detained by Tennessee Highway Patrol in 2022 under suspicion of human trafficking.

The statement from Chairman Green comes as Patty Morin, whose daughter Rachel was murdered by an illegal immigrant in 2023, criticized the Democrats’ proposal to visit Garcia. From the White House, Morin expressed her loss and concern over the border security policies. "We are American citizens; we need to protect our families, our borders, our children… To have a senator from Maryland, who didn’t even––or barely––acknowledged my daughter and the brutal death that she endured––leaving her five children without a mother, and now a grandbaby without a grandmother––so that he can use my taxpayer money to fly to El Salvador to bring back someone that is not even an American citizen. Why does that person have more rights than I do, or my daughter, or my grandchildren?" she said.

The events highlight ongoing discussions regarding border security and the use of taxpayer funds in connection with immigration issues.