U.S. President Donald Trump 's top advisers and Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, said Monday that they have no basis for the small Central American nation to return a Maryland man who was wrongly deported there last month. Bukele called the idea “preposterous” even though the U.S. Supreme Court has called on the administration to “facilitate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia's return.
Trump administration officials emphasized that Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador, was a citizen of that country and that the U.S. has no say in his future. And Bukele, who has been a vital partner for the Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said “of course" he would not release him back to U.S. soil.
“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele, seated alongside Trump, told reporters in the Oval Office Monday. “I don't have the power to return him to the United States."
Should El Salvador want to return Abrego Garcia, the U.S. would “facilitate it, meaning provide a plane,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
But “first and foremost, he was illegally in our country, and he had been illegally in our country,” she said. “That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us.”
The refusal of both countries to allow the return of Abrego Garcia, who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation over fears of gang persecution, is intensifying the battle over the Maryland resident's future. It has also played out in contentious court filings, with repeated refusals from the government to tell a judge what it plans to do, if anything, to repatriate him.
The judge handling the case, Paula Xinis, is now considering whether to grant a request from the man’s legal team to compel the government to explain why it should not be held in contempt.
The fight over Abrego Garcia also underscores how critical El Salvador has been as a linchpin of the U.S. administration’s mass deportation operation.
Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the U.S. more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants — whom Trump administration officials have accused of gang activity and violent crimes — and placed them inside the country's maximum-security gang prison just outside of the capital, San Salvador. That prison is part of Bukele's broader effort to crack down on the country’s powerful street gangs, which has put 84,000 people behind bars and made Bukele extremely popular at home.
“I want to just say hello to the people of El Salvador and say they have one hell of a president," Trump said as he greeted Bukele, who was wearing a black mock turtleneck sans tie.
Bukele struck a deal under which the U.S. will pay about $6 million for El Salvador to imprison the Venezuelan immigrants for a year.
But Democrats have raised alarm about the treatment of Abrego Garcia and other migrants who may be wrongfully detained in El Salvador. Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is pushing for a meeting with Bukele while he is in Washington to discuss Abrego Garcia's potential return, and New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the administration to release Abrego Garcia and others “with no credible criminal record” who were deported to the maximum-security prison.
“Disregarding the rule of law, ignoring unanimous rulings by the Supreme Court and subjecting individuals to detention and deportation without due process makes us less safe as a country,” Shaheen said.
Though other judges had ruled against the Trump administration, this month the Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to use the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century wartime law, to deport the immigrants. The justices did insist that the immigrants get a court hearing before being removed from the U.S. Over the weekend, 10 more people who the administration claims are members of the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs arrived in El Salvador, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday.
The president has said openly that he would also favor El Salvador taking custody of American citizens who have committed violent crimes, a view he repeated Monday.
“We have bad ones too, and I'm all for it because we can do things with the president for less money and have great security,” Trump said during the meeting. “And we have a huge prison population.” It is unclear how lawful U.S. citizens could be deported elsewhere in the world.
Before the press entered the Oval Office, Trump said in a video posted on social media by Bukele that he wanted to send “homegrowns” to be incarcerated in El Salvador, and added that “you’ve got to build five more places,” suggesting Bukele doesn’t have enough prison capacity for all of the U.S. citizens that Trump would like to send there.
The Supreme Court has called for the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia.
Trump indicated over the weekend that he would return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. if the high court’s justices said to bring him back, saying “I have great respect for the Supreme Court.” But the tone from top administration officials was sharply different on Monday,
“He's a citizen of El Salvador,” said Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff. “So it's very arrogant, even for American media, to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens.”
Bondi asserted that two immigration court judges — who are under Justice Department purview — found that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13, although the man’s attorneys say the government has provided no evidence that he was affiliated with MS-13 or any other gang. The allegation is based on a confidential informant’s claim in 2019 that Abrego Garcia was a member of a chapter in New York, where he has never lived.
While Bukele's crackdown on gangs has popular support, the country has lived under a state of emergency that suspends some basic rights for three years. He built the massive prison, located just outside San Salvador in the town of Tecoluca, to hold those accused of gang affiliation under his crackdown.
Part of his offer to receive the Venezuelans there was that the U.S. also send back some Salvadoran gang leaders. In February, his ambassador to the U.S., Milena Mayorga, said on a radio program that having gang leaders face justice in El Salvador was “an issue of honor.”
Populists who have successfully crafted their images through media, Bukele and Trump are of different generations but display similar tendencies in how they relate to the press, political opposition and justice systems in their respective countries.
Bukele came to power in the middle of Trump’s first term and had a straightforward relationship with the U.S. leader. Trump was most concerned with immigration and, under Bukele, the number of Salvadorans heading for the U.S. border declined.
Bukele’s relationship with the U.S. grew more complicated at the start of the Biden administration, which was openly critical of some of his antidemocratic actions. Trump has also shown some irritation with Bukele in the past, accusing El Salvador of lowering its crime rate by sending people to the U.S.
“He's just, ‘we’re working with our people that are causing problems and crime,'” Trump said of Bukele at a campaign rally last year. “He's not working with them. He's dumping them in the United States and their crime rate, their murder rate, is down 72%.”
Just before Bukele’s arrival in Washington, the State Department updated its travel advisory for El Salvador to Level 1, which is for countries that are considered the safest to visit for U.S. citizens. The advisory notes that gang activity, and the accompanying murders and other violent crimes, has declined in the past three years.
Associated Press writers Michael Kunzelman and Chris Megerian in Washington, and Darlene Superville in West Palm Beach, Florida, contributed reporting.
© Copyright 2025 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed without permission.
44 Comments
TaiwanIsNotChina
That "very good soul" in the WH won't be going anywhere nice soon. Also imagine what the nine Supreme Court justices who ordered his return are thinking.
Blacklabel
Still with the “Maryland man” narrative.
plasticmonkey
Totally disingenuous response.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Well he had a wife and three kids, many of them citizens. What are your qualifications for being an adult?
Yrral
Someone going to jail,it might not be Trump,but his flunky might go
Blacklabel
He is not a citizen and entered illegally.
his own President called him a terrorist and said he is not sending a citizen of El Salvador back to America.
TaiwanIsNotChina
He had a court order saying he couldn't be deported.
You know and I know that Bukele will do whatever he is paid to do. About as relevant as the US president calling journalists enemies of the people.
Yrral
You know how Trump casually use the term criminal, when he usually the only criminal in the room
Blacklabel
….to El Salvador.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Yesssss. And that is where he was deported to. Only the MAGA seems to fall for this shell game of "we can't possibly know where he is".
Blacklabel
They know exactly where he is
and the elected leader of the sovereign nation he is a citizen of says: that is where he is staying- as “El Salvador man”.
you heard it from his own mouth.
bass4funk
No, it was honest and spot on.
I'veSeenFootage
Bukele is as despicable as Trump and his lowlife supporters.
Yrral
Bass4,the only criminal in the room usually is Trump,on a crazy person, would entertain the idea of sending American to foreign jail
bass4funk
Well, then the criminal who perpetrated a crime is at fault for putting themselves in the position of possibly being deported to another country and linger in one of their toughest prison on the planet.
Bob Fosse
“send ‘em back where they came from!”
”venezuela?”
”no! El Salvador! The new president wants to make a little money on the side”
plasticmonkey
Bukele is a dictator. The U.S. should not be doing business with dictators or celebrating them in the Oval Office.
plasticmonkey
If Trump wanted him back, he could get him back. Bukele is the weaker party.
Obviously Stephen "Goebbels" Miller is serious about pursuing this fascist direction.
lincolnman
Trump MISTAKENLY deports someone a court ordered to remain in the US...
He and his goons are forced to admit their MISTAKE, though they do so with little grace...
And when a court again ORDERS Trump to correct his ERROR, he refuses and offers up all sorts of laughable excuses...
This is what MAGA-world wants for our country - anyone could be denied their rights and either deported or tossed into jail at the mere whim of the Almighty Orange Oracle...
We've seen it strewn throughout history - It's fascism, pure and simple...
So, when will Elon Musk be deported for fraudulently getting, then overstaying his student visa years ago?
Yrral
Bass4,the Supreme court say he got to be let in
TaiwanIsNotChina
Hiding behind his citizenship is the definition of cowardice. Bukele and Trump have no evidence of this man being a criminal and we've asked for non-US citizens before from your hero Putin.
wallace
Trump said on Monday that he could be open to sending Americans convicted of violent crimes to the notorious El Salvadorian mega-prison.
His remarks came during a meeting with El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele.
'Homegrowns are next. The homegrowns. You gotta build about five more places. It's not big enough,' Trump told Bukele.
His remarks set of Democrats, including Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz.
'By ‘home-growns’ Trump means US citizens. He wants to send Americans to a foreign gulag,' she said on X.
Yrral
The DOJ and FBI do not overank the court they have supervision over them
Justin Case
Geez, what next, short arm inspections for the safety of your national security?
lincolnman
These incompetent bunglers have no idea what they're doing - how many other US BORN citizens have received threatening emails like this....
"A Massachusetts-born attorney is questioning how many people are being wrongly instructed by the federal government to self-deport after she says she received an email from the Department of Homeland Security telling her to leave the U.S. “immediately” because her “parole” was terminated.
“It is time for you to leave the United States,” reads the email attributed to DHS, which has sent out similar versions to non-U.S. citizens who entered the U.S. using the CBP One mobile app."
Fascism, pure and simple...
wallace
I guess the US jails and detention centers are getting full with nearly 2 million inmates. The US has the highest incarceration rate globally, locking up a larger percentage of its population than any other independent democracy.
Now looking for foreign jails.
Blacklabel
based on what invitation, document or authority?
i did visa paperwork for Japan and got approval, didn’t you?
who knew we could have just illegally entered Japan, found an empty house, and moved in to “start a life in Japan”.
GuruMick
I will try to explain in simple terms....
Rights assigned to individuals, like due process , are often described in a generalised way, but the rights are only seen in operation when applied in individual cases.
Easy for the right wingers on this forum to use the "broad brush " , sweep all the protections earned over a century or more of Judicial oversight .
But it in the application of these rights in INDIVIDUAL cases that shows the rights are not moribund but alive
GuruMick
Plus, imprisoning someone without a trial, and having no time set for imprisonment, is a mark of repressive states.
Trump appeals to the basest urges in people, and it is always "the other " who should be unjustly treated.
Well, just wait until this system comes for you , boyo.
Blacklabel
What is “unjust” about removing one from a place they don’t belong?
if I sneak in a concert without a ticket and are found, am I not kicked out and/or prosecuted?
Or not giving non Americans the full rights of Americans?
If we did, that’s unjust- but to Americans.
rainyday
While I am in Japan legally, if I were ever found to have violated immigration law here I would reasonably expect that the worst that could happen to me would be to be temporarily detained and then deported to my home country.
I would not expect the Japanese government to drag me off the street and throw me on a plane heading to a torture camp in some poor country with no rule of law where I'll never see the light of day again.
TaiwanIsNotChina
What's unjust is removing someone who was given a court order that said he couldn't be removed. What's unjust is removing the husband and father of US citizens when he committed no criminal act except what should be a misdemeanor of crossing the border illegally.
Blacklabel
but if you did expect that cause it was happening?
it would definitely cause you to strongly reconsider coming to Japan illegally, correct?
deterrent.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Sure, if they can swim that well. It is probably the only solution to the elder care crisis, actually. Also Garcia had his own biological US citizen child.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Just two more weeks I see. There is no substitute for competence and this administration has none.
Blacklabel
its not though, right? It’s a deportable offense.
that’s why you have to interject your emotion of “should be”.
rainyday
Yup, its a deterrent all right. The rest of the world is actively deterred from all things American. In addition to deterring illegal immigration:
Trump is deterring the rest of the world from coming to the US legally - nobody in their right mind wants to even visit let alone move to that country right now. Goodbye American businesses that rely on tourist dollars.
Trump is deterring the rest of the world from trading with the US. So say goodbye to most cheap products at Wal Mart and goodbye to many export markets for US goods and services.
Trump is also deterring the rest of the world from investing in the US. So say goodbye to the benefits it gets from a strong dollar and low interest rates for government debt.
The rest of the world is going to benefit from all of this deterrence in the long run while the US is just shooting itself in the foot. But guys like you can gloat about sending some random guy to a torture chamber in El Salvador where his kids will never see him again so its all worth it, right?
Blacklabel
His family can move to the country of Dad’s citizenship, can’t they?
patkim
"The homegrowns are next" is a very chilling statement. Trump is basically sending the same kind of message that Putin tells his own people. First it starts with the violent ones, then anyone who protests against his policies, then what. Anyone he doesn't like? Trump's method of silencing dissent? But I guess we shouldn't be surprised. He is basically living up to his promise to be a dictator with no oversight.
patkim
Also, Bukele didn't wear a suit. Where is the uproar about that?
chatanista
He looks pretty sharp in that navy suit jacket, no need for any uproar.
TaiwanIsNotChina
Not much point when he is in jail based on the evidence of Marco's letter.
patkim
So did Zelensky in his visit at the White House. No need for any uproar then.
GuruMick
I will take bets on that El Salvadorean President being a Cartel Facilitator.