Trump won’t return El Salvador deportee: ‘White House was always going to decide he was a terrorist’

Read time: 4 minutes

In brief…

• A Maryland father, Kilmer Armado Abrego-Garcia, was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration despite having protected status, and now neither the US nor El Salvador will return him despite a Supreme Court ruling.
• El Salvador's President Bukele refused to return Abrego-Garcia during a White House meeting with President Trump, sarcastically asking if he should "smuggle a terrorist" into the US.
• Critics, including Congressman Juan Vargas, are concerned about the administration ignoring the unanimous Supreme Court ruling, with the White House Press Secretary continuing to label Abrego-Garcia a "gang member" and "foreign terrorist" despite having no criminal record.

What’s the story?

The Maryland father who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration will not be returned home to the United States, despite the White House admitting that he was sent in an administrative error - and the US Supreme Court ruling that the Trump administration must “facilitate” his return.

US Attorney General Pam Bondi has said it is "up to El Salvador if they want to return him,” so you would think a resolution came when President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador met with Donald Trump in the Oval Office on Monday, but during the meeting he confirmed that he will not return Kilmer Armado Abrego-Garcia to the US.

Bukele sarcastically responded to a reporter who asked if he would ensure Abrego-Garcia’s return: “Are you suggesting I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? How can I return him to the United States, like I smuggle him into the United States? Of course, I'm not going to do it.”

Abrego-Garcia was amongst hundreds of Salvadoran and Venezuelan men accused of being gang members sent to Cecot, a notorious ‘Terrorism Confinement Centre’ in El Salvador on March 15, despite a court order blocking it.

Weeks later it emerged that Abrego-Garcia, who lived with his wife and five-year-old son in Maryland, should not have been put on a plane, due to being granted protected status by an immigration judge in a ruling that said he was likely to be targeted by gangs if he went back to his home country.

During the meeting, Trump also suggested he wants to send US citizens who are violent criminals to Salvadoran prisons if it is legal to do so.

"We always have to obey the laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways, that hit elderly ladies on the back of the head with a baseball bat when they're not looking, that are absolute monsters," Trump told reporters.

"I'd like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country, but you'll have to be looking at the laws on that," he added.

What is Abrego-Garcia’s condition?

Congressman Juan Vargas is the Democratic US representative for California, and he's the co-sponsor of legislation attempting to repeal the alien enemies act - which is what the Trump administration used to deport the men to El Salvador.

He has spoken to Abrego-Garcia’s mother and wife, and believes they are “frightened to death”.

“We do have proof of life. We don't know his condition, but we do believe that as of two days ago, he is alive,” Vargas tells The News Agents.

Vargas explains that Abrego-Garcia came to the US to avoid the very gangs he is accused of being a part of, and the courts agreed he had a case for asylum.

“Next thing you know, he gets nabbed by the federal government. He gets deported. And where do they put him? Right back in the prison where this potential gang that was looking for him is.”

Vargas acknowledges that while the US Supreme Court’s decision was clear, the fact that Abrego-Garcia is an El Salvadorian citizen, not a US citizen, complicates things.

“He's not an American citizen, so now he's back in his country of origin, El Salvador. So it's not clear whether the courts in the United States can order the federal government of the United States to ask or order El Salvador to return one of their citizens to the United States,” he explains.

“That's where it gets complicated.”

Whilst Vargas believes the ruling was clear - that the US needs to bring Abrego-Garcia back – he thinks their use of language, in particular the word “facilitate”, is what confuses the situation.

“The word ‘facilitate’, that's what everyone's hanging their hat on. What does it mean to facilitate?” he asks.

“I think they use that squishy word facilitate, because of the complication with international law.”

He was outraged by President Trump’s meeting with President Nayib Bukele, calling it “outrageous”.

“It's like two dictators sitting there talking to each other, telling lies, and we're somehow supposed to believe them.

“It's outrageous. It’s lawless.”

What’s The News Agents’ take?

Not only did the US Supreme court rule that the US administration needs to be making efforts to bring Abrego-Garcia back to the US, but they made that decision unanimously - ruling nine to nil, with a six to three conservative majority.

“The administration is saying, ‘yes, screw that’,” Jon Sopel says.

“The courts are basically the only thing trying to keep Trump on the right side of the law, and he is exposing even their impotence,” says Lewis Goodall.

“In any constitutional system, ultimately, if an executive decides it wants to ignore the court, all the court can do is keep insisting that they do what they want them to do.”

And if it wasn’t already clear that Trump has decided he wants to ignore the court, it became certain when Karoline Leavitt, White House Press Secretary, doubled down on the claims that Abrego-Garcia is a criminal, calling him a “gang member” and a “foreign terrorist.”

“Deporting him back to El Salvador was always going to be the end result,” Leavitt added.

So whilst the Trump administration has admitted they made a mistake in deporting him, they’ve essentially said; ‘it doesn't really matter, because we're going to decide he was a terrorist anyway’,” Emily says.

However, Abrego-Garcia does not have a criminal record, and as Emily points out; “actually has fewer convictions than the President of the United States.”

“At this point, it doesn't really matter if you think he was a terrorist or not - because what we're talking about now is a ruling from the Supreme Court,” she goes on.

“If Trump ignores the Supreme Court or defies the Supreme Court, that is a constitutional crisis.”

Listen to the latest episode of The News Agents.