Bukele and Trump do not seem in a hurry to help Kilmar Abrego Garcia

During the visit of Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele to the White House on April 14, he and Donald Trump passed the responsibility back and forth regarding the mistaken deportation of a migrant to a controversial prison in El Salvador

President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, made it clear in a joint meeting that the Maryland man who was wrongly deported won’t be returned to the US

— CNN (@cnn.com) 2025-04-14T17:34:56.264Z

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident, was deported by mistake to a controversial prison in El Salvador, despite a Supreme Court decision requiring the Trump administration to facilitate his return, a ruling that had prohibited his expulsion for security reasons.

The meeting between Donald Trump and the Salvadoran president could have been the ideal opportunity to correct the error made by the Trump administration in Garcia’s case. However, the two leaders instead chose to pass the responsibility back and forth regarding who has the power to decide on the man’s freedom. Worse, they seemed amused by the situation.

Donald Trump admitted that an administrative error had been made in Garcia’s expulsion, but claimed that his administration had respected the Supreme Court’s decision by removing legal or logistical barriers on the American side.

According to him, Garcia’s return now depends exclusively on the Salvadoran authorities, ruling out any diplomatic effort to repatriate him.

Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele stated that he would not facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States, despite the injunction from the US Supreme Court.

He even claimed “not to have the power” to send him back, labeling Garcia a “terrorist” and rejecting any clandestine return operation.

The terrorism accusations against Kilmar Abrego Garcia by the Trump administration and President Nayib Bukele are based on no concrete evidence. Although allegations of ties to the MS-13 gang have been made, no criminal charges have ever been brought against him in the United States or El Salvador.

Recall that the Supreme Court recently ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was illegally deported to El Salvador, estimating that this deportation violated a previous decision protecting him.

Since then, the administration has been trying to evade this obligation, notably by playing on the interpretation of the word “facilitate”.

Recall that Abrego Garcia, who entered the United States illegally around 2011, had obtained an exception to his deportation to a specific country due to the dangers to his life, a decision made in 2019 after examining the evidence by an immigration judge. The judge had concluded that Garcia could not be deported, as he was a target of a gang in his home country, El Salvador.

Garcia’s future remains uncertain, and it remains to be seen how the Supreme Court will react to the Trump administration’s persistent inaction in this case.

This content was created with the help of AI.