By Vera Bergengruen and Tarini Parti
WASHINGTON -- El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said he doesn't have the authority to return to the U.S. a migrant deported to a Salvadoran maximum-security prison in error.
"Of course, I'm not going to do it," Bukele said during a Monday meeting with President Trump in the Oval Office. "How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don't have the power to return him to the United States."
In the same Oval Office meeting, Trump administration officials objected to a federal judge's ruling that the U.S. should facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was deported in what the Trump administration acknowledged was an "administrative error."
Stephen Miller, the White House's deputy chief of staff for policy, said that if Abrego Garcia were returned, the Trump administration would deport him again. "No version of this, legally, ends up with him ever living here," he said, arguing the courts can't compel the White House's foreign policy.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said during the meeting that it was "up to El Salvador if they want to return him," adding, "That's not up to us."
Write to Vera Bergengruen at vera.bergengruen@wsj.com and Tarini Parti at tarini.parti@wsj.com
(END) Dow Jones Newswires
April 14, 2025 12:48 ET (16:48 GMT)
Copyright (c) 2025 Dow Jones & Company, Inc.
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