WASHINGTON: El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said at the White House on Monday he had no plans to return a man mistakenly deported from the United States, suggesting that doing so would be like smuggling a terrorist into the country.
\nHis remarks came during an Oval Office meeting where multiple officials in President Donald Trump\u2019s administration said they were not required to bring back Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia, despite a US Supreme Court order saying they must facilitate the Maryland resident\u2019s return.
\nAbrego Garcia\u2019s case has drawn attention as the Trump administration has deported hundreds of people to El Salvador with help from Bukele, whose country is receiving $6 million to house the migrants in a high-security mega-prison.
\nThe US government has described his deportation as an administrative error. But in court filings and at the White House on Monday, the administration indicated it does not plan to ask for Abrego Garcia back, raising questions about whether it is defying the courts.
\nBukele told reporters he did not have the power to return Abrego Garcia to the US
\n\u201cThe question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?\u201d Bukele said, echoing the Trump administration\u2019s claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.
\nBukele\u2019s comments came shortly after US Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the same meeting that the US needed only to \u201cprovide a plane\u201d if Bukele wanted to return Abrego Garcia.
\nAbrego Garcia\u2019s lawyers have denied the allegation he is a gang member, saying the US has presented no credible evidence.
\nThe US sent Abrego Garcia to El Salvador on March 15. Trump called reporters asking whether the administration would follow the order for his return \u201csick people.\u201d
\n\u201cThe foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the president of the United States, not by a court,\u201d Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during the Oval Office meeting.<\/p>\n
Mega-prison<\/strong> Tuesday hearing<\/strong> WASHINGTON: El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said at the White House on Monday he had no plans to return a man mistakenly deported from the United States, suggesting that doing so would be like smuggling a terrorist into the country. His remarks came during an Oval Office meeting where multiple officials in President Donald Trump\u2019s …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":79677,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-79666","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-world"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79666","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=79666"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79666\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":79678,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/79666\/revisions\/79678"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/79677"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=79666"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=79666"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/nabanews.pk\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=79666"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nTrump said he would send as many people living in the US illegally to El Salvador as possible and help Bukele build new prisons.
\nThe US on Saturday deported 10 more people to El Salvador it alleges are gang members.
\nThe migrants El Salvador accepts from the US are housed in a facility known as the Terrorism Confinement Center. Critics say the prison engages in human rights abuses and that Bukele\u2019s crackdown on gangs has swept up many innocent people without due process.
\nBukele told Trump he is accused of imprisoning thousands of people. \u201cI like to say that we actually liberated millions,\u201d he said.
\nThe US president reacted gleefully to Bukele\u2019s comment. \u201cDo you think I can use that?\u201d Trump asked.
\nThe State Department last week lifted its advisory for American travelers to El Salvador to the safest level, crediting Bukele for reducing gang activity and violent crime.
\nLawyers and relatives of the migrants held in El Salvador say they are not gang members and had no opportunity to contest the US government assertion that they were.
\nThe Trump administration says it vetted migrants to ensure they belonged to gangs including Tren de Aragua and MS-13, which it labels terrorist organizations.
\nLast month, after a judge said flights carrying migrants processed under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act should return to the US, Bukele wrote \u201cOopsie… Too late\u201d on social media alongside footage showing men being hustled off a plane at night.<\/p>\n
\nAn immigration judge had previously granted Abrego Garcia protection from being deported to El Salvador, finding that he could face gang violence there. He held a permit to work in the US, where he had lived since 2011.
\nThe US Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court ruling directing the administration to \u201cfacilitate and effectuate\u201d his return. But it said the term \u201ceffectuate\u201d was unclear and might exceed the authority of the district court judge.
\nA hearing is scheduled for Tuesday. Legal experts said Judge Paula Xinis may press the Trump administration to determine if it signaled to Bukele that he should refuse to release Abrego Garcia, which could amount to defiance of the court order\u2019s language to \u201cfacilitate\u201d his return.
\nWhile the Supreme Court in its decision ordered Xinis to clarify her order \u201cwith due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs,\u201d some legal experts said Trump is likely defying the court by undermining Abrego Garcia\u2019s release.
\n\u201cAll that is total claptrap as applied to a case like this, where the only reason why the foreign country is holding the person is because the US pushed them to do it and made an agreement under which they would do it,\u201d George Mason University constitutional law professor Ilya Somin said.
\n\u201cIt\u2019s very obvious that they could get him released if they wanted to.\u201d
\nTrump told reporters on Friday that his administration would bring the man back if the Supreme Court directed it to do so.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"