Ron DeSantis pillories ‘bizarre’ Democratic ‘pilgrimage’ to El Salvador

While legislators were hashing out bills Friday, Ron DeSantis was on Fox News opining about national Democrats and their visits to Central America on behalf of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia.

Garcia, a controversial convict at the Center for Terrorism and Confinement (CECOT) on the American taxpayer dime, has seen attention from certain Democrats over an alleged lack of due process for the questionably legal expatriation that is intended to set precedent for more to come from the Donald Trump administration. Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland was successful in getting access to the accused gang member; others, including Rep. Maxwell Frost, were not.

“He has a lot of defenders who apparently didn’t know a lot of the details when they started jumping on his bandwagon,” DeSantis told host Martha MacCallum, alluding to disputed claims that Garcia is a member of MS-13.

The Governor then questioned their priorities further.

“I think it’s bizarre that you see these Democrat politicians making a pilgrimage down there, you know, to sit there with this guy, because I never have seen those Democrat politicians meet with angel moms who’ve lost kids because of illegal alien crime. I’ve never seen them show any sympathy for American citizens whose lives have been upended because of the open border policies when Joe Biden was President. And so it’s just odd that they’re so interested in somebody who came to the country illegally, who obviously has a very checkered background, but they don’t seem to show that same zeal in defending their own American constituents.”

DeSantis has been outspoken in saying deportation is not a “punishment,” but a simple rectification of undocumented immigrants’ illegal status.

He has also floated National Guard members serving as immigration judges, citing a lesser criteria for that adjudication than normal trials.

And he has offered Florida resources for deportation flights to El Salvador or GTMO, though as of yet he hasn’t volunteered Air DeSantis for potential expatriations to Libya or Rwanda.