Presidents Of U.S., El Salvador Say Return Of Deported MD Man Is 'Preposterous'

MARYLAND — Both President Donald Trump and Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, said Monday that they have no basis for the Central American nation to return a Maryland man who was wrongly deported there last month. And a Maryland senator said he plans to travel to El Salvador in an attempt to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the States.

Bukele called the idea of sending Abrego Garcia back to the U.S. “preposterous” even though the U.S. Supreme Court has ruled the administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia's return.

Trump administration officials emphasized that Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador, was a citizen of that country and that the U.S. has no say in his future. And Bukele, who has been a vital partner for the Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said “of course" he would not release him back to U.S. soil.

“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele, seated alongside Trump, told reporters in the Oval Office Monday. “I don't have the power to return him to the United States."

Democratic Sen. Chris Van Hollen of Maryland has requested a meeting with Bukele while he is in Washington to discuss Abrego Garcia's potential return. Van Hollen also said he inends to travel to El Salvador this week if Abrego Garcia is not returned by then.

“Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia never should have been abducted and illegally deported, and the courts have made clear: the Administration must bring him home, now. However, since the Trump Administration appears to be ignoring these court mandates, we need to take additional action," Van Hollen said. "That’s why I’ve requested to meet with President Bukele during his trip to the United States, and – if Kilmar is not home by midweek – I plan to travel to El Salvador this week to check on his condition and discuss his release.”

A GoFundMe has been set up to help the family of Abrego Garcia in Prince George's County. He and his wife have three children with health challenges: Two are on the autism spectrum and a third has epilepsy.

The fundraiser has received nearly $89,000 as of Monday afternoon.

National Day Laborer Organizing Network has organized the fundraiser on behalf of Jennifer Vasquez Sura, wife of Abrego Garcia, a resident of Beltsville and a U.S. citizen.

• Related: GoFundMe To Support Family Of Wrongfully Deported MD Man

Trump and his senior staff have repeatedly said Abrego Garcia was a member of MS-13, although the man’s attorneys say the government has provided no evidence that he was affiliated with MS-13 or any other gang. The allegation is based on a confidential informant’s claim in 2019 that Abrego Garcia was a member of a chapter in New York, where he has never lived.

Should El Salvador want to return Abrego Garcia, the U.S. would “facilitate it, meaning provide a plane,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said.

But “first and foremost, he was illegally in our country, and he had been illegally in our country,” she said. “That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us.”

The Trump Administration has admitted in court to wrongfully deporting Abrego Garcia. Maryland Democratic Party Deputy Executive Director Joe Francaviglia released a statement after Monday's remarks at the White House:

“Trump is defying the Supreme Court and disappearing people to foreign gulags. Now he’s making plans to disappear American citizens and Republicans are either sitting silently or cheering him on. The ultimate test now sits with the Supreme Court — and we call on all Republicans to join us to push the Supreme Court to unequivocally demand the Trump Administration follow due process for all and return Mr. Garcia to Maryland immediately.”

The refusal of both countries to allow the return of Abrego Garcia, who had an immigration court order preventing his deportation over fears of gang persecution, is intensifying the battle over the Maryland resident's future. It has also played out in contentious court filings, with repeated refusals from the government to tell a judge what it plans to do, if anything, to repatriate him.

The judge handling the case, Paula Xinis, is now considering whether to grant a request from the man’s legal team to compel the government to explain why it should not be held in contempt.

Last week, Xinis wrote that the decision to arrest Abrego Garcia and send him to El Salvador appears to be “wholly lawless.” There is little to no evidence to support a “vague, uncorroborated” allegation that Abrego Garcia was once in the MS-13 street gang, Xinis wrote.

The 29-year-old was detained by immigration agents and deported last month.

He had a permit from the Homeland Security Department to legally work in the U.S. and was a sheet metal apprentice pursuing a journeyman license, his attorney said.

How Bukele is helping with Trump’s immigration crackdown

Since March, El Salvador has accepted from the U.S. more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants — whom Trump administration officials have accused of gang activity and violent crimes — and placed them inside the country's maximum-security gang prison just outside of the capital, San Salvador. That prison is part of Bukele's broader effort to crack down on the country’s powerful street gangs, which has put 84,000 people behind bars and made Bukele extremely popular at home.

Bukele struck a deal under which the U.S. will pay about $6 million for El Salvador to imprison the Venezuelan immigrants for a year.

But Democrats have raised alarm about the treatment of Abrego Garcia and other migrants who may be wrongfully detained in El Salvador. New Hampshire Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, urged the administration to release Abrego Garcia and others “with no credible criminal record” who were deported to the maximum-security prison.

“Disregarding the rule of law, ignoring unanimous rulings by the Supreme Court and subjecting individuals to detention and deportation without due process makes us less safe as a country,” Shaheen said.

Though other judges had ruled against the Trump administration, this month the Supreme Court cleared the way for Trump to use the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th century wartime law, to deport the immigrants. The justices did insist that the immigrants get a court hearing before being removed from the U.S. Over the weekend, 10 more people who the administration claims are members of the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs arrived in El Salvador, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Sunday.

Trump indicated over the weekend that he would return Abrego Garcia to the U.S. if the high court’s justices said to bring him back, saying “I have great respect for the Supreme Court.” But the tone from top administration officials was sharply different on Monday.

“He's a citizen of El Salvador,” said Stephen Miller, a White House deputy chief of staff. “So it's very arrogant, even for American media, to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens.”

The Associated Press contributed reporting.