El Salvador's President Refuses Repatriation of Deported Man from US

TEMPO.CO, Jakarta - The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, has stated that he will not repatriate a man mistakenly deported to his country from the United States. The move could further complicate President Donald Trump's standoff with the American judiciary.

As reported by CBS News, Bukele, Trump, and senior U.S. officials claimed in the Oval Office on Monday that there is no basis to repatriate Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whom they accused of being a member of the MS-13 gang, which has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the U.S. president.

Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a lower court order that the federal government must "facilitate" his repatriation, referring to Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran citizen who was sent to a notorious maximum-security prison in El Salvador last month. Trump officials acknowledged his deportation as an "administrative error."

Abrego Garcia has denied the allegations of being an MS-13 member, and a U.S. immigration judge in 2019 stated there was a likelihood of future persecution if he were sent back to El Salvador.

However, when asked in the Oval Office whether he would repatriate Abrego Garcia to the U.S., Bukele replied, "Of course, I'm not going to do it. The question is preposterous. I smuggle him into the United States or what do I do? I don't have the power to return him to the United States."

The President of El Salvador added that he also would not release Abrego Garcia in El Salvador. 

El Salvador has been a key partner in Trump's efforts to deport undocumented migrants from the U.S. Washington paid San Salvador US$6 million in March to detain more than 260 migrants.

Bukele said he wants to continue to assist the U.S. president in deportations, while Trump said his partner is doing a "fantastic job" and that the partnership between the two countries is "very, very effective." Trump added that he has asked Bukele to build more prisons in El Salvador.

U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said the fate of Abrego Garcia is up to El Salvador.

"It's up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That's not up to us," said Bondi.

She claimed the Supreme Court had ruled that if El Salvador "wants to repatriate him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane."

Miller said he is a Salvadoran. There's a lot of arrogance in telling El Salvador how to treat its people.

He argued that the U.S. Supreme Court declared that neither the Secretary of State nor the President can be compelled by anyone to forcibly remove a Salvadoran from El Salvador.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio added, the United States President makes the foreign policy, not the courts. And no court in the United States has the right to carry out the United States' foreign policy.

His comments echoed arguments made by the Department of Justice, which stated in a court filing on Sunday that federal courts lack the authority to direct the executive branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular manner. The court has not decided on the issue.

The U.S. Supreme Court did not qualify whether El Salvador wanted to repatriate Abrego Garcia or not. The court ruled that the lower court order correctly requires the government to "facilitate" his release from detention in El Salvador.

On Thursday, the Supreme Court said the Trump administration must facilitate the release of the man, who resides in Maryland, from detention, but ordered additional proceedings before a federal district court.

U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis had ordered the U.S. Department of Justice to provide daily updates on their efforts to repatriate Abrego Garcia.

In a filing on Monday, the US Department of Justice included President Bukele's comments in the Oval Office. The filing also stated that "DHS does not have the authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation." 

Abrego Garcia's lawyers insist that their client has no affiliation with MS-13 and has never been charged or convicted of any crime in the U.S. or El Salvador. The Trump administration acknowledged that his deportation to the high-security prison in El Salvador known as CECOT was an "administrative error."

"It is my understanding based on official reporting from our Embassy in San Salvador that Abrego Garcia is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador," said Michael G. Kozak, a senior official at the U.S. Department of State, in a court filing on Friday.

"He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador."

In a statement after the meeting, Abrego Garcia's wife, Jennifer Vasquez Sura, said, "the Trump and Bukele administrations continue to play political games with his life."  

The Trump administration sent deportation flights with several foreign nationals whom they described as members of the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs.

An analysis by "60 Minutes" last week revealed that 75 percent of the Venezuelan nationals sent to CECOT in El Salvador had no criminal records.

At least 22 percent of the men on the list had criminal records in the U.S. or abroad. Most were non-violent offenders such as thieves, pickpockets, and burglars. About a dozen were accused of murder, rape, assault, and kidnapping. It is unclear whether there are criminal records for the other 3 percent.

Among those deported was Abrego Garcia, who lived in Maryland with his wife and children. He is a native of El Salvador, and his wife is an American.

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