WASHINGTON — El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said he will not return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to the Central American nation last month, despite a U.S. Supreme Court order urging the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return.
“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele told reporters while seated beside former President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
Abrego Garcia was deported despite having an active court order blocking his removal due to fear of gang violence. Upon arrival, he was placed in a maximum-security prison notorious for housing accused gang members.
Bukele, who has detained more than 84,000 people under his anti-gang crackdown, has leveraged mass incarceration as a political tool, earning popularity at home while drawing criticism abroad.
Trump officials suggest ignoring Supreme Court order
Top Trump officials aligned with Bukele’s stance. Attorney General Pam Bondi dismissed the Supreme Court’s directive, saying, “First and foremost, he was illegally in our country… That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us.”
Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff, doubled down: “He’s a citizen of El Salvador. So it’s very arrogant, even for American media, to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens.”
Legal advocates for Abrego Garcia have asked U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis to hold the administration in contempt for refusing to comply with the court’s instructions. Despite claims from U.S. officials that Abrego Garcia is tied to MS-13, his lawyers argue there is no credible evidence of any affiliation. The allegations stem from a single confidential informant’s unverified tip from 2019.
The situation underscores the Trump administration’s close alliance with Bukele, who has accepted more than 200 deported Venezuelans accused of gang activity under a $6 million deal to detain them in El Salvador for a year. Ten more people, described as MS-13 or Tren de Aragua members, were recently sent to the prison outside San Salvador.
El Salvador’s President refuses to return Maryland man
Bukele’s crackdown has suspended basic civil liberties under a years-long state of emergency. He built the massive Tecoluca prison to house those accused of gang affiliation, many without trial.
Meanwhile, Trump floated the idea of outsourcing incarceration of U.S. citizens. “We have bad ones too, and I’m all for it… We can do things with the president for less money and have great security,” he said, before suggesting Bukele “build five more places” to detain Americans abroad.
Though the Supreme Court said Abrego Garcia should be returned, there is no indication that either government plans to do so.
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