‘Up to El Salvador’: Trump admin punts on return of wrongfully deported Maryland resident

Attorney General Pam Bondi told reporters Monday that it is “up to El Salvador” whether they will choose to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Maryland resident deported in what Trump officials have acknowledged was an “administrative error,” saying that if the country chooses to do so, then the U.S. would “provide a plane.”

Her remarks came as President Donald Trump hosted El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele at the White House on Monday for a bilateral summit focused largely on immigration – and the hundreds of migrants deported by the U.S. to El Salvador for detention in the country’s maximum-security prison.

When asked by reporters Monday about Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was deported in error to El Salvador, Bondi said the matter was up to Bukele’s administration.

“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,” Bondi said. 

STEPHEN MILLER DOUBLES DOWN ON DEPORTATION OF ALLEGED GANG MEMBER: ‘NOT MISTAKENLY SENT’

“The Supreme Court ruled precedent that if El Salvador wanted to return him,” she continued. “This is international matters, foreign affairs.”

Bondi said that “if they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it – meaning to provide a plane,” Bondi said.

The Supreme Court ruled last week that a lower court’s order “requires the government to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”

Bukele received a warm welcome from Trump, who praised the Salvadorian leader as a “fantastic” president who is “taking care of a lot of problems,” including accepting hundreds of U.S. migrants into their detention facility, part of a roughly $6 million deal struck by U.S. officials and El Salvador earlier this year. 

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller doubled down on Bondi’s assertion, noting that Abrego Garcia is a Salvadorian national. 

“It’s very arrogant, even for American media, to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens as a starting point,” Miller told reporters, claiming that “two courts” had found Abrego Garcia to be a member of the MS-13 gang.

In fact, Abrego Garcia was granted temporary protection status in the U.S. by a court in 2019 from being removed to El Salvador, after it determined he would face criminal prosecution from gangs if he were removed to his home country.

Bukele, for his part, did not seem to think he had the authority to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., suggesting Monday that the move would be beyond the scope of his authorities.

“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the U.S.? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States,” Bukele said.

FEDERAL JUDGE HAMMERS DOJ ON WHEREABOUTS OF ALLEGED MS-13 GANG MEMBER FOLLOWING SCOTUS ORDER

Also in attendance at Monday’s meeting were several members of Trump’s Cabinet, including the aforementioned Bondi, Vice President JD Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and Stephen Miller, the White House deputy chief of staff for policy and an architect of Trump’s immigration policies. 

The meeting comes as El Salvador has received hundreds of migrants from the U.S., including more than 200 Venezuelan nationals abruptly removed in March under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, and alleged members of the Salvadorian gang MS-13.

Most recently, U.S. officials said they deported 10 more migrants to El Salvador over the weekend. 

As of this writing, the Trump administration has not returned any of the individuals who have been sent to El Salvador’s sprawling, high-security prison, including any Venezuelan nationals who may have been mistakenly identified as members of the Tren de Aragua gang, and one Maryland resident whom U.S. officials acknowledged was wrongfully deported.

In March, after the first migrant flights arrived in El Salvador despite a federal judge’s order that the flights be “immediately” returned to U.S. soil, Bukele took to social media to mockingly share footage of their arrival.

“Oopsie…Too late,” he said on X, using an irreverent tone slightly emblematic of Trump’s own style. 

‘WOEFULLY INSUFFICIENT’: US JUDGE REAMS TRUMP ADMIN FOR DAYS-LATE DEPORTATION INFO

El Salvador has already accepted hundreds of migrants from the U.S., drawing praise from President Trump and other hard-line immigration hawks – but critics warn the removals may violate due process protections under the U.S. Constitution. Immigration advocates have also raised concerns that deported individuals have not had a chance to challenge their removals in court. 

Sen. Chris Van Hollen, D-Md., said on Monday that he has requested a meeting with Bukele this week to discuss the return of Abrego Garcia. He said in a letter Monday that he has met with Abrego Garcia’s family members, including his wife and brother, who expressed to him that they are “extremely concerned” about his safety. 

“If Kilmar is not home by midweek – I plan to travel to El Salvador this week to check on his condition and discuss his release,” Van Hollen said.

Most recently, a federal judge ordered Trump officials last week to provide the court with daily updates about its efforts to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia, the wrongfully deported Maryland resident.

In a court filing submitted Sunday evening, Justice Department lawyers argued they are not required to comply with a judge’s order to “facilitate” the return of Abrego Garcia, who was sent to El Salvadorian prison in what administration officials have since acknowledged was an “administrative error.”

They argued that the order itself likely exceeds the power of the courts, arguing they “have no authority to direct the Executive Branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way, or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner.”

Meanwhile, Trump officials continue to publicly rail against so-called “activist judges,” whom they have argued are attempting to stymie Trump’s agenda and his priorities on immigration enforcement.  

Noem on Monday praised the Supreme Court’s recent emergency ruling that upholds, for now, the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to more quickly deport certain migrants.

The Supreme Court’s ruling “was a very clear message to other judges across this country … [to] stop acting like you have the authority to dictate foreign policy and national security decisions that the president is making to protect its citizens,” she said in an interview on “Fox & Friends.”

“We need to stop this, stop allowing liberal judges to try to dictate what President Trump is doing to make America safe again,” she said. “I’m grateful for the Supreme Court’s decision, and I’m hopeful that we can have a new path forward where the president and his powers are recognized.”