By Gram Slattery and Jeff Mason
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said on Monday he had no plans to return a man mistakenly deported from the United States as he met with President Donald Trump at the White House.
U.S. President Donald Trump, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele attend a meeting in the Oval Office at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 14, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque© Thomson Reuters
In an Oval Office meeting, Trump praised Bukele for opening his country’s prison system to house alleged gang members and detainees Trump wants to deport, and said he would send as many people living in the U.S. illegally to El Salvador as possible.
U.S. President Donald Trump gestures as he welcomes El Salvador President Nayib Bukele at the White House in Washington, D.C., U.S., April 14, 2025. REUTERS/Kevin Lamarque© Thomson Reuters
The U.S. would help El Salvador build new prisons, Trump added.
The Trump administration has deported hundreds of people, mostly Venezuelans, to El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, including a Maryland resident it has acknowledged deporting by mistake.
Bukele said he did not have the power to return Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States.
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“The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele said, echoing the Trump administration’s claim that Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.
Trump, who came into office in January promising to reform U.S. immigration policy, has found a kindred spirit for that effort in Bukele. The migrants El Salvador accepts from the U.S. are housed in a high-security prison critics say engages in human rights abuses.
Trump met Bukele at the White House to discuss further cooperation on security and migration, El Salvador’s embrace of Bitcoin, and tariffs.
Rights groups say Bukele has jailed thousands of people without due process in a sweeping crackdown on gangs, claims Bukele rejects.
Bukele told Trump he is accused of imprisoning “thousands” of people. “I like to say that we actually liberated millions,” he said.
Related video: El Salvador president says he won’t return Maryland man in meeting with President Trump (USA TODAY)Well, I’m supposed to have suggested that I smuggle terrorism
El Salvador president says he won’t return Maryland man in meeting with President Trump
The U.S. president reacted gleefully to Bukele’s comment. “Do you think I can use that?” Trump asked, and criticized his Democratic opponents over their handling of the U.S. border.
“It’s a sin what they did, and you are helping us out. We appreciate it,” Trump said.
The State Department last week lifted its advisory for American travelers to El Salvador to level one, the safest level, crediting Bukele for reducing gang activity and violent crime.
The U.S. on Saturday deported 10 more people it alleges are gang members to El Salvador, said Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who called the alliance between Trump and Bukele “an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere.”
Lawyers and relatives of the migrants held in El Salvador say they are not gang members and had no opportunity to contest the U.S. government assertion that they were. The Trump administration says it vetted migrants to ensure they belonged to gangs including Tren de Aragua and MS-13, which it labels terrorist organizations.
Last month, after a judge said flights carrying migrants processed under the Alien Enemies Act should return to the U.S., Bukele wrote “Oopsie… Too late” on social media alongside footage showing men being hustled off a plane in the dark of night.
‘BRING KILMAR HOME’
The case of Abrego Garcia, who was sent to El Salvador’s so-called Terrorism Confinement Center on March 15 despite an order protecting him from deportation, has drawn particular attention.
The U.S. Supreme Court upheld an order from Judge Paula Xinis directing the administration to “facilitate and effectuate” his return but said the term “effectuate” was unclear and might exceed her authority.
Trump told reporters on Friday that his administration would bring the man back if the high court directed it to.
However, in a court filing on Sunday, the administration said it was not obligated to help Abrego Garcia get out of prison in El Salvador.
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, speaking ahead of Bukele’s visit, insisted that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was legal, despite the court order.
“His status was he’s an illegal alien who’s been ordered deported, which means he can be indefinitely detained and removed to any other country in the world,” Miller said.
An immigration judge had previously granted Abrego Garcia protection from being deported to El Salvador, finding that he could face gang violence there, and he held a permit to work in the United States.
Demonstrators, including Abrego Garcia’s wife, a U.S. citizen, gathered outside the White House ahead of Trump’s meeting with Bukele.
“President Trump, bring Kilmar home now!” a speaker addressing the group outside the White House said.
(Reporting by Jeff Mason; additional reporting by Simon Lewis, Julio-Cesar Chavez, Doina Chiacu and Katharine JacksonEditing by Colleen Jenkins, Kate Mayberry, Deepa Babington and Nia Williams)
