3d ago

Cory Booker to visit El Salvador in effort to return wrongly deported man to US

www.theguardian.com Cory Booker to visit El Salvador in effort to return wrongly deported man to US

Democrats press Trump administration to follow supreme court order to bring back Kilmar Ábrego García

Van Hollen and Booker showing how representatives in government should be working for their constituents. I hope their aim is to be as annoying as possible until something good comes of it, but I worry Bukele will just arrest them and further erode the numbers we have in Congress.

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Just 1 single Senator was enough to scare them into backtracking on their previous denial and grant a face-to-face meeting with Abrego Garcia. He's been locked back up now, but, as far as I'm aware, this was the first time anyone locked up in CECOT has ever been let out even on a short-term basis to meet with someone outside the concentration camp.
And that's what just 1 Senator was able to accomplish. The bad PR of denying him was enough to scare them into it. So my question is, what could 40 manage to accomplish?
- It will manage an international incident, and Trump arranging arrests of "accidents". In the world we live in now, it's not a good idea.
  
  That didn't happen when just 1 Senator went and didn't live stream his visit. If they really wanted to, they could have claimed he did something violent or something. There'd have been no way to prove otherwise. And he was able to get them to crack just by holding a press conference. The bad PR from 1 guy getting denied scared them so much that they let him meet Abrego Garcia.
  So why do you think they'd do that if there was a large group and the entire thing was being live streamed?
  
  NECAUSE ITS FORTY. Dude, I don't see why you're not getting this. There are 45 currently sitting. Why in the hell would you send 40 and get them arrested or killed? You don't see the flaw in that logic?
  
  First, I said Representatives and Senators. There are 260 Democrats in Congress (well, 258 +2 independent who caucus with Dems), not 45. But that's beside the point. What are they doing for us in Congress right now? Absolutely nothing. Hell, a bunch of Dem Senators are acting like Vichy collaborationists helping the fascists confirm appointments and pass their CR. They're actively working against us by just sitting in Congress.
  But even that's beside the point. They're not going to arrest or kill a bunch of sitting US members of Congress. Even just saying 'no' to 1 of them was such a bad look that they completely folded and, for the fist time ever, let someone out of CECOT, even just temporarily. They've NEVER let anyone out before, and Van Hollen just showing up on his own scared them enough to crack.
  Why do you think an even greater number would scare them less?
  
  You assume they were scared. Their not. This is an idiot's attempt to turn the tables with PR: https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/live/2025/apr/18/donald-trump-immigration-tariffs-harvard-jerome-powell-us-politics-news-live-updates
  Trump's team definitely was coordinating this all the way. Even the allowed meeting.
  
  Trump lashed out in the same way he does against everyone who does something he doesn't like and you take that as proof he's some kind of mastermind behind everything? Man, do you not understand Trump at all.

147 comments