El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele has said he won’t return Maryland gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States, despite the Supreme Court ruling that the Trump administration must “facilitate” his release after an admitted deportation error landed the Maryland resident in one of the world’s most notorious prisons.
Speaking in the Oval Office alongside President Trump and Attorney General Pam Bondi, Bukele dismissed the notion outright. “How can I return him to the United States? I smuggle him into the U.S., or what do I do? Of course, I’m not going to do it,” Bukele said, brushing off the question as absurd. He labeled Abrego Garcia a “terrorist” and claimed he had no authority to unilaterally send him back.
Bondi, for her part, shifted the burden squarely onto El Salvador, saying, “It’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. First and foremost, he was illegally in our country.”
She explained the U.S. would “provide a plane” if El Salvador agreed to release him but made clear the final decision was in Bukele’s hands.
However, legal documents paint a more complicated picture. The U.S. Supreme Court didn’t condition its ruling on El Salvador’s willingness.