Salvadoran President Won’t Send Deported Illegal Alien Back to US

El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, will not release Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an illegal alien deported from the U.S. to El Salvador.  

“How can I return him to the United States?” Bukele said when asked whether he would return Abrego Garcia, who had been living in Maryland until March.  

“Can I smuggle him into the United States, or what do I do? Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous,” Bukele told reporters while sitting next to President Donald Trump in the Oval Office during a visit to the White House on Monday.  

After Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador, a federal judge ordered the Trump administration to bring the illegal alien back to the U.S. on grounds that the man had “protected legal status” in the U.S. and was deported due to an “administrative error.”  

“I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” the El Salvador president said, adding that he also will not release him onto the streets of his own country.  

“We’re not really fond of releasing terrorists inside of our country,” Bukele said.  

The man had reported ties to the MS-13 gang. 

Sitting in the Oval Office with Trump and Bukele, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the matter was in El Salvador’s hands.  

The Supreme Court, as Bondi referenced, ordered the U.S. to facilitate the transfer of the illegal alien back to the U.S., but El Salvador would first have to release the man from its custody.  

In a $6 million deal between the U.S. and El Salvador, the Latin American country has received hundreds of illegal aliens deported from the U.S. The illegal aliens, who the Trump administration asserts are all criminals, are being house in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center.  

Trump told reporters he plans to deport “as many [illegal aliens] as possible” to El Salvador, adding that he has asked Bukele to build more detention centers to house the illegal aliens.  

Bukele is the first Latin American president to visit the White House since Trump was reelected. The Salvadoran president complimented Trump for his work to secure the border and expressed his full support to assist the U.S. in its border security efforts.  

“We’re very happy, and we’re very eager, to help,” Bukele said. “We know that you have a crime problem and terrorism problem that you need help with. We are a small country, but if we can help, we’ll do it.” 

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