A top Democrat issued a warning to foreign leaders who, he claims, have enabled authoritarianism in the U.S. by aligning themselves with President Trump on issues such as deportation, stating that Democrats will not “look kindly” on Trump allies once they “come back to power.” Specifically naming El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, Rep. Jamie Raskin (D-Md.) suggested that Democrats should keep track of foreign leaders who seek favor with Trump during his second term.
“Implicit in it should be the idea that if and when we come back to power — and we will — we are not going to look kindly upon people who … facilitated authoritarianism in our country,” Raskin — one of the most nakedly partisan, left-wing members of Congress — told “Pod Save America” host Tommy Vietor in an episode that was posted Saturday. The New York Post noted that Vietor had told Raskin that a Latin American policy expert suggested to him that Democrats should “threaten to take action against any foreign government that participates in the extraordinary rendition of American citizens.”
Trump has invoked war powers under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to expedite the deportation of suspected gang members outside traditional immigration channels, sending them to El Salvador’s high-security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) megaprison. Thus far, these deportations have involved illegal immigrants, though Trump has openly speculated about the legal feasibility of transferring extremely violent U.S. citizens to foreign nations — a policy that would be immediately challenged in court should Trump implement it.
Raskin expressed support for holding foreign governments accountable and called for cutting off U.S. aid to El Salvador in retaliation for its cooperation with the Trump administration’s deportation efforts using war powers. “The whole idea that Bukele doesn’t have any power to return an American prisoner who was sent to him under an agreement where he’s getting paid $6 million by America is ridiculous,” Raskin claimed without evidence. “He’s our legal agent in this dubious arrangement they created. Of course, he’s got the power to return them.”
Last week, El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele met with President Trump at the White House, becoming the first Latin American leader to do so. During the visit, Bukele dismissed the idea of returning Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States, calling such questions “preposterous” and claiming he lacked the authority to do so.
A 2019 court ruling barred his deportation back to El Salvador due to threats from local gangs. Despite that order, the Trump administration deported him last month—an action initially described by government attorneys as an “error.” However, senior officials have since defended the move, presenting court evidence that Abrego Garcia has ties to the MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia, 29, a Salvadoran national, illegally entered the U.S. in 2011. Raskin added that his party needs to engage “in far more work of transnational Democrat solidarity” to try and “prevent the spread of lawlessness and the fascist chaos that’s been unleashed against us.”
The ranking Democrat on the House Judiciary Committee has become one of President Trump’s most outspoken critics in Congress. Previously, Raskin was a prominent defender of Hunter Biden during Republican-led investigations into the former president’s son. A former constitutional law professor, Raskin recently claimed, “we’re living in something like a gangster state right now” under Trump’s leadership. “We have to stop that, obviously, to prevent a slide into complete dictatorship,” Raskin said of the administration’s use of foreign prison systems.