By AP News
Photos: YouTube Screenshots
President Donald Trump’s administration officials emphasized that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador last month, was a citizen of that country and that the U.S. has no say in his future. And Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador who has also been a vital partner for the Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said “of course” he would not release him back to U.S. soil. Read more.
Why this matters:
The Supreme Court has called for the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia. Trump indicated over the weekend that he would return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. if the high court’s justices said to bring him back, saying “I have great respect for the Supreme Court.” But the tone from top administration officials was sharply different Monday. “He’s a citizen of El Salvador,” said Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff. “So it’s very arrogant, even for American media, to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens.”
In a court filing Monday evening, Joseph Mazzara, the acting general counsel for the Department of Homeland Security, said it “does not have authority to forcibly extract” Abrego Garcia from El Salvador because he is “in the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation.” Should El Salvador want to return Abrego Garcia, the U.S. would “facilitate it, meaning provide a plane,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.
The president has said openly that he would also favor El Salvador taking custody of American citizens who have committed violent crimes. Trump said in a video posted on social media by Bukele that he wanted to send “homegrowns” to be incarcerated in El Salvador, and added that “you’ve got to build five more places,” suggesting Bukele doesn’t have enough prison capacity for all of the U.S. citizens that Trump would like to send there.
