El Salvador President Bukele says he won’t return Abrego Garcia to U.S.

Salvador president Nayib Bukele said on Monday that he would not return Kilmar Abrego Garcia in the United States despite the United States Supreme Court to confirm an order ordering the Trump administration to “facilitate” his return.

“The question is absurd,” said Bukele at the White House at a meeting with President Donald Trump, when he was asked about Abrego Garcia’s notorious dismissal of the Salvadoral prison where he was detained since he was forcibly expelled in March.

“How can I get a terrorist smuggling in the United States?” Said Bukele. “I don’t have the power to return it to the United States.”

Trump senior officials at the same meeting of the Oval Office suggested that they would not comply with the request of the judge of the US District Court of Maryland, Paula Xinis, that civil servants facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia from his native country.

The Trump administration, which claims to be a member of a gang, admitted that Garcia, a married father of three children who live in Maryland, had been expelled due to an administrative error.

But the administration also argues that it has no legal responsibility to recover it and that the federal courts do not have the power to force its return.

Thursday, the Supreme Court confirmed the Xinis order but asked him to clarify it. Xinis quickly did it and told the Trump administration on Friday to give it daily updates to the status of Abrego Garcia and its efforts to recover it.

Bukele suggested that he would not respect the administration, even if he was asked.

“I mean, we do not like to free up terrorists in our country much,” said the Salvadoral President.

“We have just transformed the capital of the murder of the world into the safest country in the Western hemisphere and you want us to return to the release of criminals so that we can start the capital of the murder of the world?” Said Bukele. “It will not happen.”

Trump then said that the media “would like to” release criminals in the United States, adding that the media are “sick people”.

He also said he wanted Bukele to accept as many criminals as possible.

After insulted the journalist of CNN who asked questions about Abrego Garcia, Trump had thrown the question of his return to the Attorney General Pam Bondi.

Bondi said that Greo Garcia – who has never been found guilty of a crime in the United States – had been tried in court as a member of the MS -13 gang which was in the country illegally.

Xinis said there was no evidence that he was a member of a gang.

“It is in El Salvador if they want to turn it over. It’s not up to us,” said Bondi.

She said that the Supreme Court’s decision on Abrego Garcia only demands that the Trump administration “facilitates” her return “, which means providing an airplane”, if the Salvador decides to return it.

Trump then asked the top White House advisor, Stephen Miller, to weigh.

“He’s a citizen of El Salvador,” said Miller. “It is therefore very arrogant, even for the American media to suggest that we will even say to El Salvador how to manage their own citizens.”

Secretary of State Marco Rubio hosted Miller’s interpretation of the Supreme Court’s decision.

After Bukele said he would not release Abrego Garcia, Rubio said: “I don’t understand what is confusion.”

“This individual is a Salvador citizen,” said Rubio. “He was illegally in the United States and was sent back to his country. This is where you deport people to their country of origin.”

“The United States’s foreign policy is led by the President of the United States, not by a court,” said Rubio. “And no court in the United States has the right to conduct a foreign policy in the United States, it’s as simple as the end of history.”

When the journalist of CNN tried to ask Trump a follow-up question, the president replied: “How long should we answer this question?”

“Why don’t you just say: isn’t it wonderful that we keep criminals out of our country?” Said Trump.