Democrat New York Rep. Dan Goldman became unglued Wednesday when Republican Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene presented evidence that Kilmar Abrego Garcia is a member of MS-13.
Greene cited an immigration judge and law enforcement’s assessment that Garcia, who illegally entered the U.S. in 2011, is associated with the brutal MS-13 gang. The New York Democrat then accused Greene of “misstating” the evidence she presented, and attempted to prevent her from submitting the evidence into the congressional record.
“A Maryland County Police gang unit agreed that [Garcia] is MS-13, a reliable confidential informant agreed that he’s MS-13, ICE officers agreed that he’s MS-13, an immigration judge agreed that he is MS-13, an appellate board agreed that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, your Maryland man, is MS-13,” Greene said during the House Homeland Security committee hearing.
“I object because she is misstating the record and the facts,” Goldman said. “That is not accurate and therefore I object to that being introduced … There is no final court order establishing that he’s a member. Maybe he is, so you should put all that evidence before a judge and if he’s MS-13, he should be deported. That’s what we’re talking about, but you’re misstating what all of that evidence is.”
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Republican Tennessee Rep. Mark Green, the chairman of the House Homeland Security committee, said Greene has a right to submit the documents into the committee’s record.
Garcia was found loitering in a Home Depot parking lot in March 2019, wearing “a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie with rolls of money covering the eyes, ears and mouth of the presidents on the separate denominations,” which represents a “good standing” with MS-13, according to documents released by the Department of Justice on April 16. In December 2019, the Board of Immigration Appeals dismissed Garcia’s challenge to an immigration judge’s finding that he is “a verified member of MS-13.”
An immigration judge issued a deportation order for Garcia, although he received a withholding of removal order after a judge concluded that he would be in danger if he returned to El Salvador.
Garcia was pulled over on a Tennessee highway in 2022 and suspected of human smuggling after local authorities discovered he was transporting eight passengers with no apparent luggage. The car belonged to an illegal immigrant named Jose Ramon Hernandez-Reyes, who was sent to prison in 2020 for human smuggling.
The alleged MS-13 member’s wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, sought a domestic violence restraining order against Garcia in 2021, according to court documents released by the Department of Homeland Security. She accused her husband of scratching and punching her eye, causing her to bleed by throwing her laptop on the ground and ripping her shirt and skirt off.
Congressional Democrats, including Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, traveled to El Salvador to visit and stand in solidarity with Garcia. President Donald Trump’s administration maintained that while Garcia was mistakenly deported, he should remain in El Salvador due to his criminal background.
The Supreme Court ordered that the administration must “facilitate” the return of Garcia. However, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said during an April 14 meeting that he will not return Garcia to the U.S.
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