U.S. Rep. Riley Moore posted a photo on social media earlier this week showing himself giving a double thumbs up in front of an El Salvador prison where several allegedly violent gang members who were in the U.S. illegally were deported to. (Photo Provided)

All week, I’ve been calling a regional office of my U.S. Representative, Riley Moore, to ask when he will be holding a town hall during the current Congressional recess. As you might have noticed, Republican elected officials’ town halls have been a little rowdy in 2025! It caught those early politicians by surprise, but now, the rest have wised up. They are instead choosing to bury their heads in the sand instead of engaging with their own constituents. For that, Riley Moore has my slight sympathy, since no one wants to get yelled at while they’re at work. I just didn’t think he’d go so far as to choose visiting a concentration camp-esque foreign prison 3,000 miles away over having to listen to West Virginians tell him what’s what.

As a millennial, I hate talking on the phone. But on Monday, I called Moore’s Martinsburg office to ask about that town hall that’s definitely never happening. I was told that while Moore had several events scheduled, there was currently no town hall in the works. I told the aide I spoke with that there needs to be one, ASAP. I called back on Tuesday after being unable to locate any information online about Moore’s supposed many events. The story changed, and the aide said, “There are many events scheduled, but none are open to the public.”

Imagine my surprise on Tuesday night when I saw a Facebook post from my representative, live and in person from CECOT in El Salvador, where Maryland father Kilmar Abrego Garcia has been imprisoned since mid-March despite unanimous opposition and intervention by the Supreme Court. Huh! Funny how the aide failed to mention this international travel among his many important non-public events. Did he go there to attempt to get Abrego Garcia back? No. He went to take a selfie in front of a group of prisoners ala Kristi Noem in a desperate pick-me attempt to get Donald Trump to notice him among all the other low level politicians blindly going along with his agenda.

Moore traveled all the way to El Salvador to deliberately NOT make contact with Abrego Garcia. It was done at the expense of taxpayers, as confirmed by the Martinsburg office aide (by now my old friend!) on the phone on Wednesday. And for the third day in a row, he confirmed there are still zero plans for Moore to face his constituents in a town hall in his district.

Why was Moore allowed entry at CECOT when Sen. Chris Van Hollen from Maryland, Abrego Garcio’s duly-elected representative, was told he could not meet with his constituent or even speak with him? (Editor’s Note: Officials in El Salvador did facilitate a meeting with Van Hollen and Garcia later in the day Thursday.) Why was Moore even there, if not to attempt to confirm that this prisoner is there and alive? What was his goal? By all appearances, it was to score points with his boss, and for that, he’s being absolutely dragged in the comments section of his own Facebook post about this trip.

Despite what the Trump administration would like for you to believe, Abrego Garcia has not been convicted of a crime. The administration admitted in court he was sent there by mistake. And yet, despite a 2019 stay against deporting him as well as the Supreme Court’s (9-0!) ruling that they need to bring him home, he remains in this inhumane mega prison with no attempts being made to get him back. If it can happen to him, with due process tossed out the window, it can happen to anyone.

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Meryl W. Clark is a resident of Parkersburg.