Trump and Bukele refuse return of man deported despite court order

The United States has no plans to bring back a man it deported to El Salvador, despite a court order and pressure from advocates, U.S. President Donald Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele said on Monday during a meeting at the White House.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident protected from deportation by a U.S. judge, was removed to El Salvador in March. His case has sparked a national outcry, with critics accusing the Trump administration of defying judicial authority.

But both leaders dismissed calls to return him.

“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele told reporters in the Oval Office, referring to Abrego Garcia as an MS-13 gang member, echoing the Trump administration’s position. The Salvadoran president said he did not have the power to send Abrego Garcia back, and called the question “preposterous.”

Trump backed him up, brushing off reporters who asked about the Supreme Court order. “Sick people,” he said, before pledging to send more deportees to El Salvador and help Bukele build new prisons. “We will keep escalating consequences, including tariffs and maybe even sanctions,” Trump said on social media earlier.

Attorney General Pam Bondi added that El Salvador was under no obligation to accept the man back, while Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued the U.S. president, not the courts, sets foreign policy.

Abrego Garcia’s lawyers deny the gang allegations and say the U.S. has failed to provide any credible evidence. A federal appeals court recently declined to block an earlier ruling requiring the government to facilitate his return. “If the government wanted to prove he was MS-13, it’s had ample opportunity,” the court said.

The deportation came under the controversial 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which the Trump administration has used to expel hundreds of migrants, many Venezuelans, to El Salvador. Those removed are housed in a high-security facility known as the Terrorism Confinement Center, which rights groups have accused of abuses and detaining people without due process.

“My agriculture secretary is standing up for Texas farmers,” Trump said. “We want our water, and we want our people safe.”

Bukele, meanwhile, defended his policies, saying his crackdown on gangs had made the country safer. “I’m accused of jailing thousands. But I like to say, we liberated millions,” he told Trump. The U.S. president laughed, then asked, “Can I use that?”

Outside the White House, demonstrators gathered with signs reading “Bring Kilmar Home,” as his wife, a U.S. citizen, pleaded for her husband’s return.

There is no timeline for when, or if, that might happen.

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