El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said he will not return Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the US
San Salvador: Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters it’s “up to El Salvador” if Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongfully deported to an El Salvador jail, returns to the US, but El Salvador President Nayib Bukele indicated on Tuesday that he won’t. This was reported by CBS News.
As the two global leaders met, Bukele and Bondi made the remarks in the Oval Office with US President Donald Trump.
According to CBS News, the US Justice Department said in court documents over the weekend that they are prepared to take “all available steps to remove any domestic obstacles” in order to make his return easier.
“How can I return him to the United States?” Bukele questioned reporters. “Do I bring him into the United States illegally, or what? I will not do that, of course. It is a ridiculous question.
“A terrorist,” Bukele said, “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
Prior to Bukele, Bondi said that it is “up to El Salvador if they want to return him.” According to Bondi, “first and foremost, he was illegally in our country.”
According to Bondi, “That’s not up to us.” “The Supreme Court ruled, President, that if El Salvador wants to return him… we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.”
However, the Supreme Court made no mention of whether El Salvador wants to bring Abrego Garcia back. According to the court, the government was legally obligated by a lower court ruling to “facilitate” his release from El Salvador’s custody.
According to CBS News, the US Supreme Court ruled Thursday (local time) that the Trump administration must help free the Maryland-based man from detention but mandated further procedures before a federal district court.
Abrego Garcia has never been prosecuted or found guilty of any crimes in the US or El Salvador, according to his attorneys, and he has no connection to MS-13. According to CBS, the Trump administration admitted that his deportation to El Salvador’s CECOT high-security jail was an “administrative error.”
In 2019, an immigration court rejected the deportation of Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who had entered the United States unlawfully sometime around 2011. This implied that he may be deported to another nation but not to El Salvador. In his home country, a gang had been “targeting him and threatening him with death because of his family’s pupusa business,” according to the immigration court, CNN said.
