WASHINGTON — Senate Democrats plan to force a vote in the coming weeks that would require more transparency of the Trump administration's deportations to El Salvador.
As a first step Thursday, a group of four senators filed a privileged motion that would force the State Department to issue a human rights report on El Salvador, following the Trump administration's refusal to return wrongly deported Maryland resident Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
"This is not something that the Article I branch can take lying down," Sen. Tim Kaine, D-Va., said at an event announcing the motion. "When a president of the United States is flouting a Supreme Court order and saying he doesn't have the power to retract a mistake that his administration admits he's made and thinks that's the end of the story, we're here to say, 'That is not the end of the story.'"
Kaine filed the motion with Sens. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.; Alex Padilla, D-Calif.; and Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., who traveled to El Salvador last month and met with Abrego Garcia while unsuccessfully trying to negotiate his release. Abrego Garcia remains in an El Salvadoran prison.
Filed under a section of the Foreign Assistance Act of 1961, the little-used motion specifically asks whether El Salvador is taking steps with the Trump administration to facilitate compliance with the Supreme Court's ruling.
Following the motion's filing, within 10 calendar days, it goes to the Senate for a vote. The State Department human rights report can also include a privileged vote to terminate all U.S. security assistance to El Salvador.
Kaine acknowledged the Republican-controlled Senate may not vote with the Democrats.
"We'll see what the report has, but we're going to put all of our colleages on the record," he said. "If Americans are being sent to El Salvador, we should all want to get a human rights report to see whether this nation is following the rule of law or not."
Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin told Spectrum News, “The same Democrats asking for a human rights report on El Salvador voted against the Laken Riley Act, a commonsense piece of legislation that requires illegal aliens accused of crimes like assault and burglary to be detained and kept off America’s streets.
“While Democrats put their focus on human rights in El Salvador, President Trump and Secretary Noem will stand with victims of illegal alien crime, like parents Maria Vega Vega, Chris Odette, Agenes Gibony, Rachel Morin, and Alexis Nungary," McLaughlin added. "DHS has been very transparent on deportations: If you are here illegally, we will deport you."
Van Hollen said the Trump administration's deal to pay El Salvador $15 million to detain deportees from the United States "is a cash-for-collusion deal" that violates the constitutional rights of those who reside in America.
He cited a 2023 State Department human rights report on El Salvador that found incidents of torture in the country's prisons, including beatings with batons, electric shocks on wet floors, overcrowding, underfeeding and life-threatening medical neglect.
"We're doing this both to require the Trump administration to answer for its unconstitutional violations of due process and send a message to [Salvadoran] President [Nayib] Bukele that no, it is not cool to collude with Trump, to deprive people living in America the right to due process," Van Hollen said. "Donald Trump may want to adopt El Salvador's approach to violating human rights, but we don't. We will not model our judicial system on El Salvador's kangaroo courts."
Note: This article was updated to include the statement from Department of Homeland Security Assistant Secretary Tricia McLaughlin.