A divide is developing among Democrats over the handling of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s case, with some openly questioning whether leaning into the explosive issue is a winning strategy as Republicans go on offense.

Four House progressives arrived in El Salvador on Monday to push for Garcia’s return to the U.S., following Sen. Chris Van Hollen (D-Md.), who made the trek to the Central American country last week and met with the mistakenly deported man. The group has framed their effort as pushing back on a threat to basic constitutional rights.

“This is about due process, it’s about ensuring that we follow the laws of this country,” Rep. Maxwell Frost (D-Fla.) said Tuesday, after returning from El Salvador.

Few Democratic lawmakers have publicly disputed that premise as they slam President Trump’s defiance of a Supreme Court ruling ordering the White House to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return.

But some describe the administration’s focus on the issue as a deliberate distraction from other news, including the dwindling stock market, rising price of groceries and widespread confusion over Trump’s tariff policies.

While the administration has acknowledged in court that the deportation was an “administrative error,” White House officials have since leaned into the issue, labeling Abrego Garcia a “terrorist” and insisting he is a member of the MS-13 gang.

Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.) argued over the weekend that the administration “picked out this case and this man because it's about a subject that they want to keep in the news.”

“They're doing it because they want to distract people from the fact that our economy is in a tailspin thanks to them, their tariffs, the fact that you have got businesses that are looking at........

© The Hill