The president of the United States, Donald Trump, meets with the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, at the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on April 14, 2025.
Kevin Lamarque | Reuters
The president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, said Monday that he would not return Kilmar Abrego García to the United States despite an order from the United States Supreme Court that says the Trump administration should facilitate its return.
“The question is absurd,” Bukele said in the duration of the White House a meeting with President Donald Trump, when asked about sending Abrego García from the famous saving prison where he has been deported.
“How can I smuggle a terrorist in the United States?” Bukele said. “I don’t have the power to return it to the United States.”
The senior officials of the Trump Administration at the same Oval Office meeting suggested that they would not meet the lawsuit of the Judge of the Maryland District Court, Paula Xinis, that the officials facilitate the return of Abrego García of his native country.
The Trump administration, who states that he is a gang member, admitted that Abrego García, a married father of three children who lives in Maryland, was deported due to an administrative error.
The American representative Nydia Velázquez (D-Ny) (L) and the representative Juan Vargas (D-CA) (R) hold photos of Kilmar Abrego García during a press conference to discuss the trial and deportation of Abrego García in the Cannon House Building building on April 9, 2025 in Washington, DC.
Alex Wong | Getty images
But the Administration also argues that it has no legal responsibility to recover it, and that federal courses lack the power to force their return.
On Thursday, the Supreme Court confirmed the order of Xinis, but asked him to clarify it. Xinis did it quickly, and on Friday he told the Trump administration to give him daily updates about the state of Abrego García and about his efforts to recover it.
Bukele suggested that he would not comply with the administration, even if asked.
“I mean, we don’t like to free terrorists from our country,” said Salvadoran president.
“We simply convert the world capital of murder in the safest country of the western hemisphere and do you want us to go to Liberar criminals so that we can be the world’s worldwide capital of murder of the world?” Bukele said. “That will not happen.”
Trump joked that the media would “love” criminal to release the United States, adding that they are “sick people.”
Hello, Horsen Stump also said to accept as many criminals as possible.
After insulting the CNN reporter who asked about Abrego García, Trump had thrown the question about his return to Attorney General Pam Bondi.
Bondi said that Abrego García-who has never been convicted of a crime in the US.
Xinis has said that there is no evidence that he is a member of the gang.
“That depends on El Salvador if they want to return it. That doesn’t depend on us,” Bondi said.
She said that the decision of the Supreme Court on Abrego García only requires that the “facilitation” of the Trump administration “his return”, which means that he provides a plane, “if the Savior decides to return it.
Trump then asked Top Advisor of the White House Stephen Miller to intervene.
“He is a citizen or El Salvador,” Miller said. “So it is very arrogant, even, that the American media suggest that we would only tell El Salvador how to drive their own citizens.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio nodded in Miller’s interpretation of the Supreme Court ruling.
After Bukele said he wouldn’t free Abrego García, Rubio said: “I don’t understand what confusion is.”
“This individual is a citizen or El Salvador,” Rubio said. “He was illegally in the United States and was returned to his country. That’s where I sports people back to their country of origin.”
Rubio added: “The foreign policy of the United States is carried out by the president of the United States, not by a court. And no court in the United States has the right to carry out a foreign policy in the United States, it is that simple end. End of history.”
When the CNN reporter tried to ask Trump a tracking question, the president replied: “How long do we have to answer this question?”
“Why don’t you say, it is not wonderful that we are keeping criminals outside our country?” Trump said.