In the Oval Office with U.S. President Donald Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele on Monday, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio responded to questions from the press regarding Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran immigrant who was deported from the U.S. and sent to a mega prison in El Salvador.
Garcia joins more than 200 other deported immigrants in the Salvadoran prison, many of whom the Trump administration claims are members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua criminal gang or the international MS-13 gang, recently labeled a terrorist organization by the Trump administration.
During the meeting both Trump and Bukele said that they would not return Garcia to the U.S., both leaders claiming they were powerless to do so.
Rubio said: “I don’t understand what the confusion is. This individual is a citizen of El Salvador. He was illegally in the United States and was returned to his country. That’s where you deport people, back to their country of origin. Except for Venezuela, that is refusing to take people back or places like that.”
Rubio added with the clip below: “The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by @POTUS — not by a court — and no court in the United States has a right to conduct the foreign policy of the United States. It’s that simple. End of story.”
The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by @POTUS — not by a court — and no court in the United States has a right to conduct the foreign policy of the United States.
It’s that simple. End of story. pic.twitter.com/POwSlWT7Du
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) April 14, 2025
Rubio’s remarks are being slammed by judges, lawmakers, veterans and political scientists including Prof. Branislav Slantchev at the University of California San Diego who replied: “Marco, what part of judicial review do you not understand as a concept? Or are you saying POTUS can do whatever the hell he wants? Any comment on your boss saying he would send US citizens to Salvadoran prisons? Do you have one shred of integrity left?” (NOTE: Rubio is a law school graduate.)
Former Under-Secretary of State at the Ministry of Justice of Sweden Krister Thelin replied: “The executive power, including its foreign policy aspects, must adhere to the rule of law laid down in the Constitution. It is that simple.”
Note: From 2003 to 2008, Thelin was a judge at the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, and in 2008 he was elected as a member of the UN Human Rights Committee for a four-year term.
The executive power, including its foreign policy aspects, must adhere to the rule of law laid down in the Constitution. It is that simple.
— Krister Thelin (@KristerThelin) April 15, 2025
Amy McGrath, the first woman to fly a combat mission for the U.S. Marine Corps, as well as the first to pilot the F/A-18 on a combat mission, replied to Rubio: “Ever heard of the Iran-Contra scandal?”
Ever heard of the Iran-Contra scandal?
— Amy McGrath (@AmyMcGrathKY) April 15, 2025
In a widely circulated post about the current situation he entitled “State Terror”, Timothy Snyder — the Yale historian and author of books on tyranny — asserted that the rule of law in the United States is fracturing. Snyder wrote, in part:
In the United States, we are governed by a Constitution. Basic to the Constitution is habeas corpus, the notion that the government cannot seize your body without a legal justification for doing so. If that does not hold, then nothing else does.
The president is claiming core congressional responsibilities when he asserts personal control of immigration policy, criminal law, and the funding of forcible renditions. Congress could very easily pass laws, if a few Republicans found the courage. The president is claiming core judicial functions when he defines himself as judge, jury, and, in the case for forcible renditions to El Salvador, de facto executioner. The phrase “contempt of court” took on vivid life in the White House yesterday.
Proceeding as if Congress retains power to govern in the face of autocratic maneuvering by the executive branch, Sen. Chris Murphy (D-CT) warns, like Snyder, that the rule of law is imperiled and that with the disappearing of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, we are also witnessing the disappearance of a “key check” against autocracy.
I want to tell you why the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia should matter to you.
The one power you cannot give the executive is the ability to imprison or expel anyone regardless of their legal rights. That is our key check against autocracy. And we are watching it disappear. pic.twitter.com/aod5nTsMmz
— Chris Murphy
(@ChrisMurphyCT) April 15, 2025