El Salvador has declined to send back Kilmar Ábrego García, who was mistakenly deported by US authorities and is currently held in El Salvador’s maximum-security facility.
This stance was announced by President Nayib Bukele during his White House meeting with President Donald Trump on Monday, highlighting their cooperative relationship.
Despite the US Supreme Court’s recent ruling that the Trump administration should “facilitate” Ábrego García’s return a man who had lived in Maryland with his family and received deportation protection from a court in 2019 the administration maintains it lacks the power to secure his return.
Attorney General Pam Bondi emphasized that the decision ultimately rests with El Salvador’s government. Trump commended Bukele for their agreement allowing the US to deport alleged gang members to El Salvador. Ábrego García was among 261 individuals recently deported to El Salvador’s Center for the Confinement of Terrorism, though his attorney disputes gang membership claims.
During the meeting, Trump also expressed interest in potentially deporting violent US citizen criminals to Salvadoran prisons, pending legal review. “We have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they’re not looking, that are absolute monsters,” Trump stated, adding he would consider including them “in the group of people to get them out of the country.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced on Sunday that ten more alleged gang members had been deported despite ongoing legal challenges. The administration has designated MS-13 and Tren de Aragua as “foreign terrorist organizations.”
The administration’s legal team argued that Ábrego García’s situation involves foreign policy matters beyond court jurisdiction, despite Trump’s earlier statement that he would comply with Supreme Court orders to return deportees. Justice Department filings now cite Bukele’s refusal as evidence of their inability to comply.
Ábrego García’s wife, US citizen Jennifer Vasquez Sura, condemned both administrations for “playing political games with his life” while vowing to continue fighting for her husband’s return.
Although the US government acknowledges Ábrego García was deported due to an “administrative error,” it continues to claim he belongs to MS-13, which his lawyer firmly denies. The court has mandated daily progress reports on efforts to return him.
The Trump-Bukele relationship has strengthened considerably since Trump’s January inauguration, with Bukele’s willingness to accept US deportees supporting Trump’s mass deportation agenda. Rubio praised the partnership on social media as “an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere,” while Trump has repeatedly lauded Bukele’s tough approach to crime.
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