U.S. Representative Riley Moore said he went to El Salvador as part of a congressional trip, supports that country’s efforts to imprison gang members and believes the concept of due process should specifically apply to American citizens.
Moore said he does not regret a thumbs up selfie he took in front of people in prison but does regret negative responses.
Of the double thumbs up selfie, he said, “Look, I’m giving an affirmative gesture that ‘Yes I think this is working. I’m supportive of what the president is doing. I’m supportive of what President Bukele is doing,” referring to Nayib Bukele, president of El Salvador.
“But I do want to say this. I know people have found that picture offensive. That was not my intent, was to upset people, not my intent to upset people with that picture. And that was not my intent whatsoever.”
Moore, a Republican first-term congressman, posted photographs to social media this week after visiting CECOT, Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo.
I just toured the CECOT prison in El Salvador. This maximum security facility houses the country’s most brutal criminals, including murderers, rapists, pedophiles, and terrorists. Several inmates were extremely violent criminals recently deported from the U.S.
I leave now even… pic.twitter.com/zhO8i2IbOd
— Rep. Riley M. Moore (@RepRileyMoore) April 15, 2025
Calling Moore’s social media post “barbaric, inhumane, and disgusting,” Democratic organizers in his congressional district encouraged people to call the congressman’s offices and e-mail him on Friday.
Moore, speaking on MetroNews’ “Talkline,” said he is sorry people are upset — but not sorry about the images he shared.
“No, I don’t regret posting it. I regret the reaction to it and a lot of the misinformation that’s out there where they think U.S. citizens are being sent to this facility. There’s no U.S. citizens down there,” he said.
“It’s an absolute lie. It’s just unbelievable that this is the information that is out there right now, that there’s U.S. citizens actually being held in a foreign prison in El Salvador, not true at all. But no — certainly was not the intention to cause people to be upset about that.”
He continued, “They think, and they’ve they’re equating this to a gulag or a concentration camp. It’s not any of these things. These folks are getting meals. They do get exercise. But let’s not forget, these are murderers and rapists.”
The Trump administration has a $6 million agreement with El Salvador’s government to send some people deported from the United States to The Terrorism Confinement Center.
Hundreds of the immigrants deported from the United States to the maximum security prison were alleged to be to be members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang.
The Trump administration has not identified the migrants deported, provided any evidence they are in fact members of Tren de Aragua or that they committed any crimes in the United States. Some were determined to be gang members because of their tattoos of crowns, a clock and other symbols.
Among the deported people being held at the prison is Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a sheet metal worker and father-of-three from Maryland, who was removed from the United States through an “administrative error.”
HOPPY KERCHEVAL: How the case of Abrego Garcia tests one of the bedrock principles of our country
Ábrego García came to the United States from El Salvador illegally around 2011, fleeing threats from a violent gang known as Barrio 18 toward his family. An immigration judge’s 2019 order granted him protection from deportation to El Salvador on the grounds that he might be at risk of persecution from gangs in his home country.
He has been accused of being a member of a violent Salvadoran gang, MS-13. That allegation comes from a 2019 removal proceeding and allegedly based on his apparel of a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie along with a Gang Field Interview Sheet entered by a detective who was later suspended.
Abrego Garcia, who has no criminal record in the United States or anywhere else, denies an allegation of gang membership.
This week, the Prince George’s County, Md., sheriff’s department released a statement that still does not clarify whether Abrego Garcia is truly a gang member, saying he was picked up in 2019 with others who “displayed traits associated with MS-13 gang culture. This was based on tattoos, clothing, as well as information from a source.”
The statement continued, “The PGPD did not charge or arrest any of the individuals. The PGPD has not had any further interactions with Abrego Garcia nor received any new intelligence related to him.”
The U.S. Supreme Court, in a 9-0 ruling, directed the Trump administration to facilitate his return to the United States.
Judges from the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals weighed in late this week, declining to lift a district judge’s order directing the administration to “take all available steps” to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. “as soon as possible.”
The blistering order was written by Circuit Judge Harvie Wilkinson of Virginia, an appointee of former President Ronald Reagan, and joined by judges Robert King and Stephanie Thacker of West Virginia.
“It is difficult in some cases to get to the very heart of the matter. But in this case, it is not hard at all. The government is asserting a right to stash away residents of this country in foreign prisons without the semblance of due process that is the foundation of our constitutional order,” the appeals judges wrote.
“Further, it claims in essence that because it has rid itself of custody that there is nothing that can be done. This should be shocking not only to judges, but to the intuitive sense of liberty that Americans far removed from courthouses still hold dear.”
The appeals judges went on to say, “The government asserts that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist and a member of MS-13. Perhaps, but perhaps not. Regardless, he is still entitled to due process.”
Commentary by T.J. Meadows: Due process is for everyone
Congressman Moore, on statewide radio, suggested illegal immigrants are not entitled to the same expectation of due process.
“He’s not U.S. citizen,” Moore said. “We have returned him to the country of which he is a citizen of. He is a citizen of El Salvador. So we’ve returned him to there.”
Asked about the Supreme Court’s unanimous ruling and the ongoing judicial review, Moore said, “What I would point back to is the designation of foreign terrorist organizations and foreign terrorists that we have sent out of this country or sent to other countries all through the war on terror. We saw that happen. That has happened multiple times.
“Now they’re going to have to hash this out with the administration, but I do support what President Trump is trying to do, which is trying to make our country safe again. That is what he’s trying to do, and I just don’t understand why people want to bring back gang members into the country. I don’t get that.”
Moore said he was on a congressional trip to El Salvador, although he did not specify the source of the travel funds. The congressional group also included Carol Miller, the Republican congresswoman who represents southern West Virginia counties.
“So there was a congressional delegation being led by Chairman Jason Smith, who is chairman of Ways and Means Committee, and I was invited to go on the trip,” Moore said.
“And I thought it was important to go down there and see it since it’s been a topic of discussion in our country that we’ve been talking a lot about this prison — but then also a large aspect of this was to do kind of fact finding in an oversight capacity in terms of our discussions about the security that’s actually been brought to El Salvador.”