President Donald Trump, right, meets with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador in the Oval Office of the White House in Washington, on Monday, April 14, 2025. President Trump met with President Bukele as the administration ramps up its use of a notorious Salvadoran prison for holding migrants deported by the U.S. (Eric Lee/The New York Times)
El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele on Monday said he would not return a man who the Trump govt admits was mistakenly deported to the Central American country as part of US migration crackdown. “How can I return him to the US? It’s like, I smuggle him into the US?… I don’t have the power to return him to the US,” Bukele said at a meeting with President Trump in Oval Office. The Trump govt has been ordered by a court to facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran living in Maryland, after he was deported without due process.
