El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele said he would not return a wrongly deported American resident to the United States, in a meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump dominated by immigration policy today.
Since Trump took office, hundreds of Latin American immigrants in the U.S. have been sent to an El Salvadoran maximum security prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT. Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a legal resident in Maryland originally from El Salvador, was taken to CECOT last month, with the administration alleging he was part of the gang MS-13.
“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” said Bukele during a press conference with Trump. “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
The Trump administration has offered no evidence that Abrego Garcia was affiliated with gang activity, according to Abrego Garcia’s attorneys, and he has not been charged with any gang-related crimes. He had previously received a court order preventing his deportation to El Salvador, saying he would have been persecuted by gangs in the country.
While the U.S. Justice Department admitted last month that Abrego Garcia “was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error”, it argued that the U.S. lacks the jurisdiction to return him to the country.
The Supreme Court held last week that the administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi has said this implies the U.S. will provide transport if Bukele agrees to release Abrego Garcia.
Maryland Democratic Senator Chris Van Hollen said he had requested a meeting with Bukele to discuss Abrego Garcia’s return, and would travel to El Salvador if Abrego Garcia was not brought back to the U.S. this week. “Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia never should have been abducted and illegally deported, and the courts have made clear: the Administration must bring him home, now,” said Van Hollen.
More than 200 Venezuelans in the U.S. were also sent to CECOT in March, with the administration alleging they were gang members. About 90% of those transported to El Salvador have no criminal records, however, per Bloomberg.
Last month, the U.S. struck a deal to pay El Salvador’s government US$6 million to imprison migrants in CECOT for one year.
Trump told Bukele in the Oval Office today that he supports sending American citizens to CECOT. “Home-grown criminals are next,” he said.
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