El Salvador President Bukele won’t return Abrego Garcia

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said Monday that he would not return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States despite a U.S. Supreme Court order that says the Trump administration should facilitate his return.

“The question is preposterous,” Bukele said at the White House during a meeting with President Donald Trump, when he was asked about sending Abrego Garcia back from the notorious Salvadoran prison where he has been held since being forcibly deported in March.

“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele said. “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”

Top Trump administration officials at the same Oval Office meeting suggested they would not comply with Maryland U.S. District Court Judge Paula Xinis’ demand that officials facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return from his native country.

The Trump administration, which claims he is a gang member, has admitted that Abrego Garcia, a married father of three who lives in Maryland, was deported due to an administrative error.

But the administration also argues it has no legal responsibility to get him back, and that federal courts lack the power to compel his return.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court upheld Xinis’ order, but asked her to clarify it. Xinis quickly did so, and on Friday told the Trump administration to give her daily updates on the status of Abrego Garcia, and about its efforts to get him back.

Bukele suggested he would not comply with the administration, even if asked.

 “I mean, we’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country,” the Salvadoran president said.

“We just turned the murder capital of the world into the safest country in the Western Hemisphere and you want us to go back into releasing criminals so we can go back to being the murder capital of the world?” Bukele said. “That’s not going to happen.”

Trump then quipped that the media would “love” to have criminal released into the U.S., adding that they are “sick people.”

He also said he wants Bukele to accept as many criminals as possible.

After insulting the CNN reporter who asked about Abrego Garcia, Trump had tossed the question about his return to Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Bondi said Abrego Garcia — who has never been convicted of a crime in the U.S. — had been determined in the courts to be a member of the gang MS-13 who was in the country illegally.

Xinis has said there is no evidence that he is a gang member.

“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,” Bondi said.

She said the Supreme Court’s ruling on Abrego Garcia only requires that the Trump administration “facilitate” his return, “meaning provide a plane,” if El Salvador decides to return him.

Trump then asked top White House advisor Stephen Miller to weigh in.

“He’s a citizen of El Salvador,” Miller said. “So it’s very arrogant, even, for American media to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio nodded along at Miller’s interpretation of the Supreme Court’s ruling.

After Bukele said he would not release Abrego Garcia, Rubio said, “I don’t understand what the confusion is.”

“This individual is a citizen of El Salvador,” Rubio said. “He was illegally in the United States and was returned to his country. That’s where you deport people back to their country of origin.”

Rubio added: “The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the President of the United States, not by a court. And no court in the United States has a right to conduct a foreign policy in the United States, it’s that simple. End of story.”

When the CNN reporter attempted to ask Trump a follow-up question, the president replied, “How long do we have to answer this question from you?”

“Why don’t you just say, Isn’t it wonderful that we’re keeping criminals out of our country?” Trump said.