'How can I smuggle a terrorist into US': El Salvador president refuses to return Maryland man after wrongful deportation

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele has refused to send back Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident mistakenly deported to El Salvador, telling reporters at the White House that he doesn’t have the authority — nor the intention — to return him.
“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele said Monday, seated beside US President Donald Trump in the Oval Office. “I don't have the power to return him to the United States.”

Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national who had lived in the US for over a decade, was deported last month as part of a mass expulsion targeting alleged gang members — many affiliated with Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua and MS-13. But unlike the others, Abrego had a court order preventing his removal due to the threat of persecution in El Salvador. He now sits in the country’s most notorious prison, CECOT, amid diplomatic wrangling over his future.
Attorney general Pam Bondi, also present, said the Supreme Court had ruled the US would “facilitate” Abrego’s return if El Salvador agreed. “That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,” she said. “The Supreme Court ruled that if El Salvador wants to return him … we would facilitate it: meaning, return a plane.”
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller defended the administration’s stance, saying the man is Salvadoran and it was “very arrogant” of US media to “tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens.”
Despite admitting that Abrego’s deportation was an “administrative error,” US officials maintain that he was “illegally in the country.” The government has so far declined to comply with a federal court’s demand to explain why it hasn't repatriated him.
The deportation has drawn sharp criticism from Democrats. Senator Chris Van Hollen of Maryland is seeking a meeting with Bukele in Washington, while Senator Jeanne Shaheen called on the administration to stop “disregarding the rule of law” and detaining people without due process.
Abrego, who reportedly fled El Salvador to escape gang threats tied to his family’s pupusa business, has never been convicted of any crime. His lawyers say he is neither affiliated with gangs nor poses any threat.
Bukele, however, dismissed such concerns and reiterated his tough-on-crime posture. “You want us to go back to releasing criminals so we can go back to being the murder capital of the world? That’s not going to happen,” he said.
The incident underscores the deepening cooperation between Bukele and Trump in ramping up deportations. Since March, El Salvador has accepted more than 200 alleged Venezuelan gang members under a US-funded programme worth $6 million — a move that has bolstered Bukele’s domestic popularity while raising international legal concerns.
Trump, praising Bukele during the meeting, remarked: “I want to just say hello to the people of El Salvador and say they have one hell of a president.” He also floated an even more controversial idea — sending US citizens with criminal records to El Salvador, suggesting Bukele may need to “build five more places” to hold them.
As the legal battle continues, US Judge Paula Xinis is considering a motion to hold the government in contempt for ignoring the Supreme Court’s ruling on Abrego. But with both governments refusing to budge, the Maryland man remains locked up in a maximum-security cell, a pawn in a larger immigration crackdown with unclear boundaries.