The single most important reason why Democrats lost, and lost bigly, the 2024 elections is because the party is fixated on its support of so-called “80-20” issues — where 80 percent of the country, roughly, is one one side and Democrats are on the side with the remaining 20 percent. Issues like ‘there are more than two sexes,’ supporting biological males playing against females in sports, teaching homosexuality and other ‘trans’ cultural traits to first graders, and supporting illegal immigrant gang members who are part of designated terrorist organizations are not political winners, even in ‘progressive’ 2024 America.
To the latter issue, the party’s House leader, Hakeem Jeffries of New York, is now panicking over Democrat members’ continued trips to El Salvador to stump for a deported known MS-13 member the Trump administration has proven is a threat to the country and a criminal. According to sources quoted by The Bulwark, Jeffries has quietly urged his colleagues to scale back their high-profile trips to El Salvador. Publicly, he’s kept his remarks vague, but behind the scenes he’s indicated that congressional delegations around the Kilmar Abrego Garcia case should be put on hold for now.
The shift comes amid new facts that could undercut the narrative Democrats initially framed as a clear miscarriage of justice. In April, several Democratic lawmakers traveled to El Salvador to highlight the March deportation of Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who had lived in Maryland for over a decade with his U.S. citizen wife and children after entering the country illegally (that’s a key point, y’all). Though an immigration judge granted him protection from removal in 2019, citing threats from rival gangs, he was nonetheless swept up in the government’s mass deportation operation targeting alleged gang members.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) led the first delegation, meeting with Abrego Garcia after successfully urging Salvadoran authorities to transfer him out of the notorious CECOT prison. Shortly thereafter, Reps. Maxwell Frost (D-FL), Robert Garcia (D-CA), Yassamin Ansari (D-AZ), and Maxine Dexter (D-OR) sought to visit him as well; they were refused access but instead conferred with U.S. embassy officials and local activists.
What began as a sharp rebuke of Trump-era immigration policy has become more complex. Critics inside and outside the Democratic Party now warn the effort carries greater political risk—especially after it emerged that Abrego Garcia’s wife had previously filed a protective order. Although she later explained it stemmed from an earlier abusive relationship, the disclosure shifted the optics. There is also the fact that two immigration courts have found him to be an MS-13 member, and he was previously stopped by law enforcement in Tennessee, believed to be trafficking illegal migrants.
When asked Monday if Democrats should press ahead with their El Salvador trips, Jeffries sidestepped the question and instead attacked Trump’s approval ratings. However, Democratic aides told The Bulwark that he has privately urged members to pause future visits. “They want to let the El Salvador stuff slow down,” one senior staffer said. Translation: It’s not that Democrats won’t still take the side of an illegal alien gang member over the safety of American citizens, it’s just that they don’t want to tone it down just a bit because it’s an 80-12 issue.
Not all Democrats feel that way, however, Rep. Henry Cuellar (D-TX) told Fox News, “This is not the right issue to talk about due process. This is not the right case.” Cuellar represents a more conservative wing of the party and has warned that the political risks of defending Abrego Garcia might outweigh any moral high ground — of which, of course, there isn’t any ‘moral high ground.’
Democrats continue to prove they are the “America Last” and “America Never” party, while President Trump and Republicans continue to fight for our country first, foremost, and always — even those who don’t appreciate it.