'Mr. Garcia Was Abducted': Yassamin Ansari Demands Return Of Kilmar Abrego Garcia To The U.S.

At a press briefing in San Salvador, El Salvador, Rep. Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ) demanded the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the U.S.

Transcript

00:00Good afternoon everyone. I'm Congresswoman Yasemin Ansari. I represent Phoenix, Arizona.

00:05I am here with my colleagues to demand that Donald Trump facilitate the safe return home

00:10for Mr. Kilmar Abrego Garcia. The facts of this case are abundantly clear. Mr. Garcia

00:16was abducted. He is a father. He is a husband. He's a union member. His union leadership

00:23is advocating for him through the building trade, saying that he needs to come home.

00:27And he was wrongly deported here to a foreign prison in El Salvador. And our government

00:32has admitted that mistake. The Supreme Court of the United States, the highest court in the land,

00:38has said his return home must be facilitated by the United States government. So we are here today

00:44to demand that he is returned as soon as possible. We had a meeting this morning with the embassy here

00:50in El Salvador. And from what we have heard, there is no reason for me to believe that our

00:56administration, the Trump administration is doing anything to facilitate his safe return home. And

01:01that is simply unacceptable. It's against the Constitution. And it defies what we hold so

01:07dear in our country, which is due process and the rule of law. And as my colleagues have said,

01:12there are so many others. I represent Arizona's third district, an extremely diverse district where

01:18at our university 50 foreign students had their visas revoked unexpectedly. We have Afghan refugees

01:24who've received notice that they need to return home. We have people who have been detained, a veteran,

01:30detained and deported by ICE, a veteran who served two tours in Afghanistan. So this is not

01:36just about Kilmar. We need Kilmar to come home. But we are so concerned that if this is allowed to fly,

01:43that the Trump administration will be emboldened to continue. And since we were not able to get the

01:48answers we need today from the embassy, we have written a letter just as of 30 minutes ago to Secretary

01:54of State Marco Rubio demanding daily proof of life for Mr. Obrego Garcia, demanding he sees he has access to

02:02counsel, and of course, finally demanding his safe return home. And we will not stop until this is complete.

02:07And with that, I will hand it over to my colleague, Rep. Maxine Dexter.