WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats plan to force a vote in the coming weeks on a resolution to require more transparency from President Donald Trump’s administration about deportations to El Salvador.
The resolution announced by Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine on Thursday comes after two votes on Democratic resolutions challenging Trump's tariffs. It is part of a larger strategy by Democrats to continue using mechanisms under the law to take floor time from majority Republicans and vote on reversing parts of Trump’s agenda.
“These votes are all about curbing executive power,” said Kaine, who was also a lead sponsor on the two tariff bills. “That is a unifying theme.”
The new resolution would force Trump's Republican administration to report to Congress about what steps it is taking to comply with courts that have determined the U.S. government wrongfully deported immigrants to El Salvador. Democrats have highlighted the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to the Central American country and who a Maryland judge has said should be returned to the U.S.
Kaine said that Democrats want to put Republicans on record on that case and others while also pressuring the government of El Salvador, which is working with the Trump administration. The resolution would also require the Trump administration to reveal more information about money paid to El Salvador and assess the country’s human rights record. Leaders in El Salvador will have to deal with the United States long past Trump’s tenure, Kaine said, and “we’re going to have a very long memory about this.”
Democrats have been under pressure from base voters to use their limited powers in the minority to fight Trump on all fronts. While the resolution is unlikely to get a vote in the House even if it passes the Senate, Democrats say it is about bringing attention to issues and forcing Republicans to go on record where they are reluctant to speak out publicly against Trump.
“We have limited tools, but this is an effective tool,” said Maryland Sen. Chris Van Hollen, who is backing the resolution and visited Abrego Garcia in El Salvador two weeks ago.
Democrats have already forced a handful of votes on the Senate floor, including the two tariff votes last month. The Senate in early April passed a resolution that would have have thwarted Trump’s ability to impose tariffs on Canada, but Republicans this week narrowly blocked a similar resolution that would have stalled Trump’s global tariffs announced several weeks ago. Four Republicans voted with Democrats on the first tariff measure, and three Republicans voted with them on the second resolution.
The Democrats are forcing the votes under different statutes that allow so-called “privileged” resolutions — legislation that must be brought up for a vote whether majority leadership wants to or not. The resolution being introduced Thursday is under the Foreign Assistance Act, which allows any senator to force a vote to request information on a country’s human rights practices.
Senate Republicans pulled similar maneuvers during President Joe Biden’s administration under the Congressional Review Act, which allows lawmakers to force votes on rescinding regulations.
In addition to forcing votes, Democrats would like to expand the Congressional Review Act to help them reverse Trump's mass firings at federal agencies. Oregon Sen. Jeff Merkley and California Rep. Maxine Waters introduced bills in the Senate and House on Thursday that would make any president's federal workforce reductions subject to that law and eligible for automatic votes on Capitol Hill if Congress wants to reverse them.
It is unclear if any Republicans would vote with Democrats on the El Salvador resolution. Most Republicans have enthusiastically embraced Trump's border policies, even if some are wary of the administration's defiance of court orders and as some Americans think Trump has gone too far.
While symbolic, Kaine said he hopes the votes on the resolutions will force Republicans to feel pressure — and potentially slow down future actions by Trump.
“It’s a way of shining a spotlight on this issue,” Kaine said.
Congressional Correspondent Lisa Mascaro contributed to this report.
Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., during a news conference upon his arrival from meeting with Kilmar Abrego Garcia in El Salvador, at Washington Dulles International Airport, in Chantilly, Va., Friday, April 18, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
Jennifer Vasquez Sura, the wife of Kilmar Abrego Garcia of Maryland, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador, speaks during a news conference at CASA's Multicultural Center in Hyattsville, Md., Friday, April 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Jose Luis Magana)
KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — A Ukrainian drone strike killed 24 people and wounded at least 50 more as they celebrated the New Year in a Russian-occupied village in Ukraine’s Kherson region, Russian officials said Thursday, as tensions between the two nations continue to spike despite diplomats hailing productive peace talks.
Three drones struck a cafe and hotel in the resort town of Khorly on the Black Sea coast, the region’s Moscow-installed leader Vladimir Saldo said in a statement on Telegram. He said that one of the drones carried an incendiary mixture, sparking a blaze.
Ukrainian officials did not immediately comment on the claim of a strike. The attack could not be independently verified by The Associated Press.
The attack was condemned by a number of Russian officials. Valentina Matviyenko, the chair of Russia’s upper house of parliament, the Federation Council, said that the strike “strengthened” Russia’s resolve to quickly achieve its goals in its almost four-year invasion of Ukraine.
The strike “once again demonstrates the validity of our initial demands,” Matviyenko said.
The statement follows claims from Moscow that Ukraine launched a long-range drone attack against one of Russian President Vladimir Putin’s official residences in northwestern Russia overnight from Sunday to Monday. Kyiv has denounced the claims as a “lie.”
Russia’s Ministry of Defense said Thursday that its specialists had accessed the navigation system in one of the drones it claimed was used in the attack and used its data to confirm that Putin’s residence was the drone's final destination. The claim could not be verified as the ministry did not share evidence on the findings, but officials said that it would transfer the data to U.S. officials “through established channels.”
On Wednesday, Russia's Defense Ministry also released a video on Wednesday of a downed drone it said was involved in the attack.
The nighttime clip showed a man in camouflage, a helmet and a Kevlar vest standing near a damaged drone lying in snow. The man, his face covered, talks about the drone. Neither the man nor the Defense Ministry provided any location or date and neither the video nor its claims could be independently verified.
Kyiv has called the allegations of an attack on Putin’s residence a ruse to derail ongoing peace negotiations, which have ramped up in recent weeks on both sides of the Atlantic.
In his New Year’s address, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said that a peace deal was "90% ready" but warned that the remaining 10%, believed to include key sticking points such as territory, would “determine the fate of peace, the fate of Ukraine and Europe, how people will live.”
Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said Wednesday that he, Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Trump’s son-in-law and adviser Jared Kushner had a “productive call” with the national security advisers of Britain, France, Germany and Ukraine “to discuss advancing the next steps in the European peace process.”
“We focused on how to move the discussions forward in a practical way on behalf of (Trump’s) peace process, including strengthening security guarantees and developing effective deconfliction mechanisms to help end the war and ensure it does not restart,” Witkoff said in a post on X.
Lead Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov also reaffirmed that European and Ukrainian officials plan to meet Saturday, while Zelenskyy is due to hold talks next week with European leaders.
In the diplomatic sphere, Kyiv has also continued to push the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) to take action against Russia for alleged attacks on electricity infrastructure deemed “critical for nuclear safety and security” at Ukraine's nuclear power stations.
The IAEA on Tuesday published a Note Verbale sent by Kyiv to the agency, saying that a Russian drone and missile attack on Dec. 23 had caused certain Ukrainian nuclear power plants to lose a “significant part of their off-site power connections.”
Elsewhere in Ukraine, Russia attacked the Odesa region overnight, targeting civilian infrastructure in several waves of drone attacks, according to regional head Oleh Kiper.
In a post on Telegram, Kiper said a two-story residential building was damaged and that a drone hit an apartment on the 17th floor of a high-rise building without detonating. There were no casualties reported.
Follow AP’s coverage of the war in Ukraine at https://apnews.com/hub/russia-ukraine
This image made from undated video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, shows a downed drone at an undisclosed location that it said was one of the Ukrainian drones involved in an alleged attack on a residence of President Vladimir Putin this week – a claim Kyiv has denied as a "lie". (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
This image made from undated video provided by the Russian Defense Ministry Press Service on Wednesday, Dec. 31, 2025, shows a downed drone at an undisclosed location that it said was one of the Ukrainian drones involved in an alleged attack on a residence of President Vladimir Putin this week – a claim Kyiv has denied as a "lie". (Russian Defense Ministry Press Service via AP)
