El Salvador President Nayib Bukele met with U.S. President Donald Trump at the White House Monday and said he has no plans of returning a mistakenly deported illegal immigrant from a maximum security prison in the central American country.
Taking questions from reporters in the Oval Office, Bukele said he did not have the power to “smuggle” Kilmar Abrego Garcia back into the U.S., implying that the Trump administration would not accept Garcia through normal channels, despite a court order requiring the administration to “facilitate” his return to the U.S.
Garcia, 29, was arrested and deported last month after residing in Maryland illegally since 2011.
“Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous,” Bukele said. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
Trump appeared sympathetic to Bukele’s position and accused “sick people” in the media of rooting for criminals to be released into the U.S.
Bukele’s comments potentially complicate the Trump administration’s effort to comply with the Supreme Court’s order last week to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia, a man with no previous criminal record.
“If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would do that. I respect the Supreme Court. I have great respect for the Supreme Court,” Trump said, addressing the Supreme Court’s order.
“I'm not totally well versed as to the specific case, but if they said to bring him back, I would tell them to bring him back.”
Garcia was arrested while loitering outside of a Maryland Home Depot in 2019. He was identified as a ranking member of the violent MS-13 gang by a confidential informant and was on track to be deported until a judge granted him a stay of removal based upon his claim that he would be persecuted by gang members if he were returned to his native El Salvador. Under the judge’s order, Garcia could have been legally deported to any other country besides El Salvador.
The Trump administration has defended the decision to deport Garcia based on his suspected gang membership, but acknowledged making an “administrative error” in deporting him to the one country that he was shielded from by judicial order.
Garcia’s attorneys have disputed claims that he is an MS-13 gang member and argued there is no evidence to back it up. He was not charged with a crime before getting deported.
In court papers Sunday, the administration said Garcia is “alive and secure” but insisted El Salvador has jurisdiction over him. The statement was made in order to satisfy a lower court judge’s instruction that the federal government provide daily updates on his condition.
“He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador,” State Department official Michael Kozak said in the court documents. His deference to El Salvador follows comments from Trump suggesting that violent illegal aliens removed from the U.S. are now under Bukele’s control.
“President Bukele has graciously accepted into his Nation's custody some of the most violent alien enemies of the World and, in particular, the United States. These barbarians are now in the sole custody of El Salvador, a proud and sovereign Nation, and their future is up to President B and his Government,” Trump posted Saturday on Truth Social.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio brokered a deal with Bukele earlier this year for El Salvador to accept deportees from the U.S. of any nationality, including violent American criminals, to assist the Trump administration with its crackdown on illegal immigration.
Bukele said El Salvador would help the U.S. outsource part of its prison system in exchange for a modest fee. Shortly thereafter, the Trump administration began sending South American gang members to Bukele’s Terrorism Confinement Center, making El Salvador an important regional ally for the Trump administration.
Rubio praised the U.S.’s “alliance” with El Salvador in a social media post Sunday announcing another 10 gang members were sent to the anti-terrorism prison facility.
“Last night, another 10 criminals from the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua Foreign Terrorist Organizations arrived in El Salvador,” Rubio said.
The alliance between @POTUS and President @nayibbukele has become an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere.”
Commentaires
Enregistrer un commentaire
Thank you to leave a comment on my site