Trump, El Salvador president won’t order return of deported illegal immigrant

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said Monday that he would not send back one of his citizens who was deported by the U.S. last month, calling the man a “terrorist” and saying it was “preposterous” to think he should be released from custody in El Salvador.

Mr. Bukele, who met with President Trump at the White House, said his government now has jurisdiction over Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

That undercuts the legal argument Mr. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys and a federal district judge used to order the Trump administration to return him. If Mr. Abrego Garcia is under the jurisdiction of a foreign government and not the U.S., it’s not clear what power the judge has to enforce her order.

Mr. Bukele was adamant about claiming custody and rejected the idea of returning Mr. Abrego Garcia.

“How can I return him to the United States, like I smuggle him to the United States?” Mr. Bukele said. “Of course, I’m not going to do it.”

Mr. Trump deferred questions about the U.S. handling of Mr. Abrego Garcia to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said it was up to Mr. Bukele.

“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him; that’s not up to us,” she said during the Oval Office meeting between Mr. Trump and Mr. Bukele.

She said the U.S. “would provide a plane” if El Salvador wanted to release him.

Mr. Bukele said he was not interested.

“That question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” he said. “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”

In a new court filing Monday evening, after the White House meeting, acting Homeland Security General Counsel Joseph Mazzara said the U.S. can’t go get Mr. Abrego Garcia.

“DHS does not have authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation,” Mr. Mazzara said.

Democrats have taken up Mr. Abrego Garcia’s cause.

“The law is clear, due process was grossly violated, and the Supreme Court has clearly spoken that the Trump administration must facilitate and effectuate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia. He should be returned to the U.S. immediately,” said Senate Minority Leader Charles E. Schumer, New York Democrat.

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, Maryland Democrat, said he would travel to El Salvador this week to check on Mr. Abrego Garcia.

Mr. Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant to the U.S., was deported to El Salvador on March 15. Since then, he has been held at the Terrorism Confinement Center.

He was part of three planeloads of migrants that the U.S. sent out that day. Some of them, the U.S. said, were Salvadoran citizens and members of MS-13, a vicious gang based in El Salvador. The country said it wanted the gang members back for intelligence purposes.

Others were Venezuelans whom the Trump administration said were part of Tren de Aragua, a notorious gang with roots in Venezuela. It infiltrated the U.S. during the Biden years.

The U.S. government has declared both gangs to be terrorist organizations, and Mr. Trump has invoked the Alien Enemies Act to speed members’ deportations.

An immigration judge ordered Mr. Abrego Garcia deported in 2019 but added an addendum known as “withholding of removal.” It said the one place Mr. Abrego Garcia couldn’t be sent was El Salvador because he faced the risk of persecution or torture in his home country.

Another immigration judge established that he was a member of MS-13 based on a confidential source report to police in Prince George’s County, Maryland. That source identified Mr. Abrego Garcia based on his gang nickname and rank.

He had been living in Maryland with his wife and son, required to periodically check in with ICE, when he was arrested and put on one of the March 15 planes despite the bar on being sent back to El Salvador.

Homeland Security Department and White House officials described that deportation as a “mistake” but have balked at bringing him back now that he is off U.S. soil.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis has disputed the MS-13 claims. She called the police source an “uncorroborated allegation.”

She described his arrest by deportation officers as “unconstitutional” and his deportation as “illegal.”

She ordered his return by April 7. The Supreme Court delayed that deadline but largely upheld her ruling, saying the U.S. must “facilitate” his return. The justices also cautioned Judge Xinis to be aware of the limits of her ability to meddle in the president’s foreign policy decisions.

After that, Judge Xinis renewed her order unchanged, with a new deadline of returning the man “as soon as possible.”

The U.S., in a new argument to the court this weekend, said there is no “withholding of removal” defense to Mr. Abrego Garcia’s deportation because it believes he is a member of MS-13.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller honed that argument Monday. He said Mr. Abrego Garcia was “no longer eligible for any form of immigration relief in the United States” as soon as Mr. Trump declared MS-13 to be a terrorist organization.

“Under our law, he’s not even allowed to be present in the United States,” he said.

Mr. Bukele was at the White House to discuss the growing partnership between El Salvador and the U.S.

Mr. Trump praised Mr. Bukele for his work in his country and called him “one hell of a president.”

Under a deal struck last month, the U.S. will pay $6 million to El Salvador to imprison more than 230 members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua for one year.

Mr. Trump, in a video posted to social media by Mr. Bukele, was heard saying he wants to send “homegrowns” to be jailed in El Salvador.

“You’ve got to build about five more places,” Mr. Trump said about the mega prisons.

Immigrant rights activists were horrified by that notion.

“All of this is a reminder why immigration is the tip of the spear for Trump’s larger assault on key pillars of our democracy and why what’s at stake should alarm Americans of all political persuasions,” said Vanessa Cardenas, executive director of America’s Voice, an immigration advocacy group.