President Trump and the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, insist they will not return a man the Trump administration admits it mistakenly deported to a mega-prison. 

In March, the Trump administration deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who had been living in America since he entered the country illegally in 2011, to a prison in his home country of El Salvador. An immigration judge issued a ruling in 2019 protecting him from being returned to El Salvador due to concerns that his life would be at risk. After he was deported, a federal district court judge, Paula Xinis, ordered the government to “facilitate” his return, but while American officials admitted they erred in deporting Mr. Garcia, they said they had no authority to return him. 

During Mr. Bukele’s visit to the White House on Monday, CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked if the Trump administration would comply with Judge Xinis’ order, which was upheld by the Supreme Court. 

Attorney General Bondi responded to the question by stating that Mr. Garcia was in the country illegally and that immigration judges ruled he was a member of MS-13 – something his lawyers have denied. Judge Xinis and the immigration judge who initially protected Mr. Garcia from being returned to El Salvador both were unconvinced that he was a member of MS-13. 

Ms. Bondi said the government needed to do “additional paperwork” before it sent Mr. Garcia to El Salvador, but insisted the matter of returning him was entirely out of American officials’ hands.

“Right now, that’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,” the attorney general said. “The Supreme Court ruled that if El Salvador… wanted to return him, we would facilitate it.”

Last week, the high court upheld Judge Xinis’ order that the government must “faciliate” the release of Mr. Garcia. However, it also said the lower court “should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.” After the Supreme Court’s ruling, Judge Xinis ordered the government to “take all available steps to facilitate the return of Abrego Garcia to the United States as soon as possible.”

The deputy White House chief of staff, Stephen Miller, said Monday that because Mr. Trump designated MS-13 as a foreign terrorist organization and the government alleges Mr. Garcia was a member of the gang, he “had to be returned” to El Salvador.

He then cast Judge Xinis’ order as telling the government that it had to “kidnap a citizen of El Salvador and fly him back here.” He also said, “No version of this, legally, ever ends up with him living here because he is a citizen of El Salvador.”

When asked if El Salvador plans to return Mr. Garcia, Mr. Bukele responded, “The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”

Mr. Bukele also rejected the idea of simply releasing Mr. Garcia into El Salvador.  

Mr. Trump went even further and said that beyond not returning Mr. Garcia, he would like to include “homegrown criminals” among those who are deported to prisons in El Salvador. 

In a video that circulated online, Mr. Trump is seen talking to Mr. Bukele as he says, “Home-growns are next.” Mr. Trump also said Mr. Bukele needs to build “about five more places” because the prison that America has been deporting illegal immigrants to is “not big enough.”

When asked by reporters if he was referring to American citizens, Mr. Trump said, “If they’re criminals and if they hit people with baseball bats over the head that happen to be 90 years old… yeah, that includes them.”

“What do you think there’s a special category of person? They’re as bad as anybody that comes in,” he said. “I’m all for it.”

He said the administration is “studying the laws” to determine if it can send American citizens accused of crimes to other countries’ prisons. 

A reporter asked if America would pay for more facilities to be constructed, and the 47th president responded, “I’d do something, we’d help them out. They’re great facilities, very strong facilities, and they don’t play games.” 

“I said to Pam [Bondi], I don’t know what the laws are, we always have to obey the laws, but we also have homegrown criminals that push people into subways… I’d like to include them in the group of people to get them out of the country,” he said.