A Democrat Who Investigated Abuses in El Salvador Says His Party Must Focus on Abrego Garcia

“Maybe it’s inconvenient to talk about things like the Constitution and due process right now, and would rather be talking about other things,” Rep. Jim McGovern told NOTUS. “But, I mean, we have to react to what’s unfolding before us.”

Jim McGovern

Bill Clark/AP

Democratic Rep. Jim McGovern took issue with members of his party who say that focusing so much attention on the wrongful deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador is a distraction.

McGovern, a senior member of the House Democratic Caucus who has traveled to El Salvador to investigate human rights abuses going back to his time as a congressional aide in the 1980s, argued that Democrats would be giving in to the Republican playbook by avoiding the subject and focusing solely on issues like tariffs.

“What would he have us do, say nothing?” McGovern, who represents a district in Massachusetts, said in an interview with NOTUS in response to comments made by California Gov. Gavin Newsom last week at a news conference. “Maybe it’s inconvenient to talk about things like the Constitution and due process right now, and would rather be talking about other things. But, I mean, we have to react to what’s unfolding before us.”