El Salvador’s president Bukele says he won’t return Maryland man
In a meeting at the White House, Nayib Bukele told President Trump he would not return the mistakenly deported Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
Democratic lawmakers say if a wrongly deported man sent to a supermax prison in El Salvador isn’t brought back to the U.S., they will visit the central American country, adding further pressure on the Trump administration for his release.
President Donald Trump met with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office on Monday, where he praised the foreign leader for opening his country’s notorious prison system to alleged gang members and detainees the U.S. wants out of the country.
Bukele told reporters he does not have the power to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a sheet metal worker who lived in Maryland and was allowed to remain in the country by a federal judge’s protective order after entering the U.S. illegally in 2011.
Abrego Garcia, a father of three, has become a centerpiece of the Trump administration’s clampdown on illegal immigration after Justice Department officials acknowledged that he should not have been sent to El Salvador.
“I’ve been clear: if President Bukele doesn’t want to meet here in D.C., then I intend to go to El Salvador this week to check on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s condition and discuss his release,” Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-MD, said in an April 14 post on X.
“Kilmar was illegally abducted and deported by the Trump (administration). He must be brought home now.”
Other members of Congress say they plan to join Van Hollen’s trip, including Rep. Maxwell Frost, D-Fl., who described Garcia’s detention as a “kidnapping and illegal detention.”
“We need answers now,” said Rep. Yassamin Ansari, D-Ariz., who reshared Van Hollen’s post on Monday.
‘He’s not a Maryland man’: Trump administration digs in heels
As much noise as Democrats and their allies make, however, the Trump administration for the moment appears resolute that despite the mistake that deported Abrego Garcia to the notorious prison, he should not be in the U.S.
“He has no lawful right to be here,” Stephen Miller, who serves as the White House deputy chief of staff for policy, told reporters on Monday. “He was issued a final order of removal from this country, and so it’s up to El Salvador and to the government and the people of El Salvador what the fate of their own citizens is. We can’t extradite citizens of foreign countries to our country over the objection of those countries.”
The Trump administration has repeatedly defended Abrego Garcia’s deportation, even after the conservative-leaning Supreme Court ordered U.S. officials to facilitate his return.
“He’s not a ‘Maryland man.’ He’s an illegal alien MS-13 terrorist from El Salvador,” Miller said in an April 14 post on X. “The corporate media wants so badly for our country to be flooded with foreign criminals.”
A U.S. district judge said the Trump administration has not provided evidence to support that accusation, according to court documents.
Abrego Garcia left El Salvador at age 16 to escape gang violence, according to court records, and later testified he came to the U.S. because the Barrio 18 gang, a rival of MS-13, was extorting and threatening him and his family.
But Trump’s supporters spotlight a police document presented to the courts by federal officials in 2019. It states Abrego Garcia was believed to be a gang member because he was wearing a Chicago Bulls hat and a hoodie. It also says a confidential informant advised that Abrego Garcia was an active member of MS-13 with the “Western” clique.
Contributing: George Petras, Veronica Bravo