El Salvador’s president says he won’t return deported man held in high-security prison

El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele rejected the idea of returning a man at the center of an immigration dispute, telling reporters during a meeting at the White House that he has no power to do so and calling the suggestion “preposterous.”

“How can I return him to the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it,” Bukele said on Monday during a press briefing at the Oval Office alongside President Donald Trump, Vice President JD Vance, Homeland Security Advisor Stephen Miller, and Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

“The question is preposterous — how can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”

Bukele was referring to Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran man who was illegally deported from Maryland in defiance of a court order. He is currently being held at El Salvador’s high-security Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), a facility known for detaining alleged members of MS-13 and the Tren de Aragua gang.

The U.S. Supreme Court on Thursday declined to fully intervene in Abrego Garcia’s case, but left in place key parts of a lower court ruling that direct the U.S. government to facilitate his release and to treat the case as if the deportation had never occurred. The ruling is now back in the hands of a federal district court, which must clarify how far that directive extends.

The Department of Homeland Security admitted the deportation violated a 2019 immigration court decision that barred Abrego Garcia’s removal due to the likelihood of persecution. Officials described the incident as an “administrative error” but maintained that Abrego Garcia is affiliated with MS-13 and poses a threat to public safety.

Abrego Garcia has denied any gang affiliation and said he lived peacefully in the U.S. for over a decade. No criminal charges have been filed against him in the United States.

In a dissenting opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor, joined by Justices Ketanji Brown Jackson and Elena Kagan, condemned the government’s actions, warning that allowing such removals without consequence would set a dangerous precedent.