Salvadoran President Bukele Says He Doesn't Have The Power To Return Man Erroneously Deported to His Country

During his visit to the White House on Monday, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele told reporters that he has no intention nor the authority to return the Maryland man wrongfully deported by U.S. authorities to his country last month.

Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia was deported in March despite a 2019 court order barring his removal to El Salvador. He had lived in Maryland under a valid work permit and, according to his lawyers, fled from El Salvador due to political violence in 2011. The administration has alleged that Abrego Garcia is affiliated with MS-13, a claim his legal team and his wife have strongly denied.

Speaking at the Oval Office during his visit to meet with President Donald Trump, Bukele added that he does not have the authority to return Agrego Garcia back to the U.S., labelling the suggestion as preposterous.

"How can El Salvador return him to the United States? By smuggling him? Of course we're not going to do that. I don't have the authority to return him," Bukele added.

Other top Trump administration officials at the Oval Office meeting suggested they would not seek his return despite a Supreme Court order directing the federal government to "facilitate" it.

Attorney General Pam Bondi was also present at the meeting and said Abrego Garcia had been determined by a judge to be a member of the MS-13 gang and that he was in the country illegally. "

"That's up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That's not up to us," Bondi said, even though Bukele said the country doesn't have the authority to do so.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio also said Abrego Garcia was a citizen of El Salvador and repeated that the U.S. has no say in his future.

The U.S. State Department has confirmed that Garcia, is alive and currently being held at the CECOT mega-prison, a maximum-security facility operated by the Salvadoran government.