El Salvador President Nayib Bukele snubbed the US Supreme Court ruling in a meeting with US President Donald Trump as he refused to return the wrongly deported man.
According to The Guardian, Bukele, in a meeting with Trump in the Oval Office on Monday, April 14, 2025, told the US president and the cabinet members that he will not “smuggle a terrorist” into America.
He said, “The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I’m not going to do it. I don’t have the power to return him to the United States. I’m not very fond of releasing terrorists into the country (El Salvador either).”
A US court last week ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” the return of wrongly deported Kilmar Ábrego García, while Attorney General Pam Bondi said it is "up to El Salvador if they want to return him."
During the meeting, the Republican president praised the new partnership with El Salvador under which the US can deport alleged gang members to the Central American nation.
The 78-year-old told reporters, “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, and that are absolute monsters.”
Despite legal challenges over the deportation, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday announced that another ten alleged members of the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs were sent to El Salvador.
