On March 15, 2025, ICE deported Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to El Salvador, where he is (to the best of anyone’s knowledge) being imprisoned without trial. While Garcia was born in El Salvador, he had legal status in the United States, a status much like asylum. Garcia is married to an American citizen and he is father to two American-citizen children. The Trump administration referred to Garcia’s deportation as “an administration error,” but the administration has done nothing to rectify the situation. On April 10th, the Supreme Court voted unanimously that Garcia’s deportation was illegal and ordered the Trump administration to do what they could to bring this poor man back to his wife and children.
On Monday, Donald Trump had an Oval Office meeting with El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele, who calls himself the “world’s coolest dictator.” Bukele has had a months-long agreement with Trump to “take” all of the people being disappeared by the Trump administration. These are not deportations – deportation is a legal process. This situation is just… ICE rounding up people they “think” are illegal immigrants, ignoring whatever their legal status might be, and sending them off to an El Savadorian hellhole prison, never to be heard from again. Before the White House press pool came into the Oval, Trump told Bukele that “home-growns are next” and “you gotta build about five more places.” Then everyone in the room laughed:
Trump to Bukele: “Home-growns are next. The home-growns. You gotta build about five more places. It’s not big enough.” pic.twitter.com/o20thGNK9e
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) April 14, 2025
It’s just… what everyone knew would happen. This is what Trump supporters voted for. They knew exactly what would happen and this is what they wanted to happen. Once the WH press pool came into the Oval, Trump was asked about Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. Would you believe that Trump doesn’t intend to comply with a Supreme Court order?
In an Oval Office meeting with President Trump on Monday, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador said that he would not return a Maryland man who was wrongly deported from the United States and sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador.
“Of course I’m not going to do it,” Mr. Bukele said when reporters asked if he was willing to help return the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, whose case is at the heart of a legal battle that has gone to the Supreme Court.
Mr. Bukele said returning Mr. Abrego Garcia would be akin to smuggling “a terrorist into the United States.” As the Salvadoran president talked, Mr. Trump smiled in approval, surrounded by cabinet members who spoke in support of the president on cue.
The Supreme Court last week ordered the administration to “facilitate” Mr. Abrego Garcia’s return. But in a legal filing on Sunday, the Justice Department argued that the courts lacked the ability to dictate steps the White House should take to return Mr. Abrego Garcia, because only the president had the power to handle U.S. foreign policy. The meeting in the Oval Office on Monday was a blunt example of Mr. Trump’s defiance of the courts. The president and his top White House officials said the decision over Mr. Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old father of three, would have to be made by Mr. Bukele.
The Trump administration has justified its use of a wartime authority to deport migrants to El Salvador by alleging that they are members of violent gangs like MS-13, which originated in the United States and operates in South America, and the Venezuelan criminal group Tren de Aragua. While some of the deportees had criminal convictions, court papers have shown that the evidence the government has relied on to label some of them gang members was often little more than whether they had tattoos or had worn clothing associated with a criminal organization.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen Bukele speak or operate – I figured he would be slavishly devoted to Trump, but that’s not the dynamic at all. They’re birds of a feather – they treat each other as equals, as mob syndicate chiefs working in tandem. I guess what I’m saying is that Bukele is doing what Trump wants, but they’re clearly in business together, and Bukele is getting something out of this.
Bukele: I don’t have the power to return him to the United States. pic.twitter.com/TJIYJFrRm5
— Acyn (@Acyn) April 14, 2025
Photos courtesy of Getty.