Angry constituents on Tuesday confronted Senator Chuck E. Grassley, Republican of Iowa, about President Trump’s refusal to bring back a Salvadoran immigrant mistakenly sent to a prison in El Salvador.
In the most heated exchange of an hourlong town hall in the Southeast corner of his state, Mr. Grassley, 91, was asked by a shouting audience member whether he would do anything to help secure the return of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was deported last month.
Mr. Grassley had been responding to another questioner’s criticisms of the Trump administration’s stance toward refugees when a man behind her shouted: “ Are you going to bring that guy back from El Salvador?”
The question was met with enthusiastic claps from many in the crowd of about 100.
“I’m not going to,” Mr. Grassley said. Pressed to explain his stance, he added, “Because that’s not a power of Congress.”
When the man replied that the Supreme Court had ordered the Trump administration to facilitate Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release, others in the audience began piling on. Some noted that Mr. Grassley chairs the Judiciary Committee, which oversees immigration policy and judges, prompting the senator to stammer, then fall silent and wait for the shouting to die down before trying to respond.
“El Salvador is an independent country,” Mr. Grassley said. “The president of that country is not subject to our U.S. Supreme Court.”
The crowd practically erupted in jeers.
The discussion was representative of the tone throughout the town hall, a standing-room-only event in Fort Madison, Iowa, in which the eight-term senator was repeatedly pressed about why he was not doing more to rein in the Trump administration.
Though at least two members of the crowd wore shirts suggesting they supported the president, Mr. Grassley often struggled to be heard over his audience. They peppered him with questions about Mr. Trump’s tariffs, his sweeping immigration policies, massive cuts to the federal government and the future of Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid.
At one point, Mr. Grassley was asked directly whether he was “proud of Trump.”
“There’s no president I have agreed with 100 percent of the time,” he answered.
The crowd responded with groans.
Michael Gold covers Congress for The Times, with a focus on immigration policy and congressional oversight.
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