WASHINGTON – Today, U.S. Senator Jeanne Shaheen (D-NH), Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, issued the following statement on Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's visit to the White House:
"It is imperative that we keep our country safe by detaining and deporting criminal gang members illegally in the United States, but how we do so matters. Disregarding the rule of law, ignoring unanimous rulings by the Supreme Court and subjecting individuals to detention and deportation without due process makes us less safe as a country. I am deeply concerned that while the Trump Administration treats Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to an Oval Office visit, they continue to fail to comply with court orders to uphold the rule of law and due process by seeking the release of migrants wrongfully being held in Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). As Americans, we should all be concerned by reports that 75 percent of the migrants the Trump Administration has sent to CECOT have no criminal record and the Administration's own admission that at least one migrant with legal status, Mr. Abrego Garcia, was deported due to an 'administrative error.'
"I call on the Trump Administration to immediately take steps to comply with the Supreme Court's order to facilitate the return of Mr. Abrego Garcia, among others, to the United States and to urge it to also seek the release from CECOT of all migrants deported by the Administration with no credible criminal record. I am also sending a letter to the Administration requiring that it explain its unprecedented and inappropriate use of congressionally-appropriated assistance intended for combatting violent transnational gangs and drug traffickers, which has instead been diverted to fund these detentions. The Administration must comply at once with statutory law by providing to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee any written agreements made with the Salvadoran government on this issue. Given the Administration's alleged commitment to combatting violent criminal gangs, the Administration should also explain to the American people why the Department of Justice has dropped charges against a key MS-13 leader in advance of Bukele's White House visit."
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