By Kaitlan Collins and Kevin Liptak, CNN

(CNN) — The Trump administration and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele made clear during an Oval Office meeting on Monday that the Maryland man who was wrongly deported to El Salvador won’t be returned to the United States.

Despite a Supreme Court ruling that the US must “facilitate” Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia’s return, White House officials have argued it’s up to El Salvador whether to do so.

Asked directly by CNN’s Kaitlan Collins if he plans to return him, Bukele argued the notion of doing so would be “preposterous.”

“I hope you’re not suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States,” Bukele said. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.”

Senior White House officials have objected to the judge’s ruling in recent days and argued that a court cannot intervene in the foreign policy decision-making of the United States. As CNN reported, the high court’s unsigned and brief decision left US District Judge Paula Xinis’ order in place but drew a distinction between “facilitating” Abrego Garcia’s return and “effectuating” it. The lower court properly required the government to “facilitate” his return, the justices made clear.

President Donald Trump himself has shifted his stance in recent days after initially saying he would abide by the Supreme Court’s decision.

“If the Supreme Court said bring somebody back, I would do that. I respect the Supreme Court,” Trump told reporters last week.

But pressed by Collins on those previous comments, the president on Monday did not answer the question.

During the Oval Office meeting, Trump turned to members of his administration — including Attorney General Pam Bondi, deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller and Secretary of State Marco Rubio — to underscore the administration’s argument that the US doesn’t have the power to return Abrego Garcia.

“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us. The Supreme Court ruled that if El Salvador wants to return him … we would facilitate it: meaning, provide a plane,” Bondi said.

Abrego Garcia entered the country illegally sometime around 2011, but an immigration judge in 2019 – after reviewing evidence – withheld his removal. That meant that Abrego Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador. A gang in his native country, the immigration judge found, had been “targeting him and threatening him with death because of his family’s pupusa business.”

Bukele’s willingness to accept hundreds of migrants who the Trump administration claims are gang members or violent criminals has been critical to the president’s ambition of deporting as many as a million undocumented people before the first year of his second term is over.

Trump wants to deport ‘homegrown’ criminals

Trump on Monday urged Bukele to build more mega-prisons, like the country’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, which Bukele has invited the US to use to jail deportees for a fee.

And Trump signaled that deportees could also include US citizens who are considered violent criminals.

“If it’s a homegrown criminal, I have no problem,” the president said, adding that Bondi is studying the laws “right now.”

“And I’m talking about violent people. I’m talking about really bad people. Really bad people. Every bit as bad as the ones coming in,” the president added.

In a deal announced earlier this year, El Salvador agreed to house violent US criminals and receive deportees of any nationality in an unprecedented – and legally problematic deal – that has alarmed critics and rights groups.

Monday’s visit cements Bukele’s status as one of the closest foreign partners of the new Trump administration, which has alienated some traditional US allies in its early days. One of the region’s most popular leaders, Bukele has called himself “the world’s coolest dictator” and the “philosopher king” as he suspends certain civil liberties to go after his country’s gangs.

That has earned him the ire of international human rights organizations, which allege large-scale abuses in his crackdown on crime. But it has also earned him popularity inside El Salvador; Bukele, 43, won reelection last year by a landslide.

Trump has taken notice. He called his counterpart “President B” on social media over the weekend and praised him for “graciously” accepting “some of the most violent alien enemies of the World and, in particular, the United States.”

“I think he’s doing a fantastic job. He’s taking care of a lot of problems that we have,” Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One early Sunday morning, as he was returning from Miami after watching a UFC fight.

“He’s been amazing,” Trump said, brushing off any human rights concerns. “They have some very bad people in that prison,” he said referring to CECOT.

El Salvador’s justice and public security minister released a highly produced video Sunday showing 10 deportees who arrived over the weekend being loaded off a plane and marched into the prison in shackles.

The administration has claimed those sent to El Salvador are terrorists or violent criminals, but evidence proving as much has been scant. Government lawyers have cited tattoos or clothing linked to gangs in court papers to allege criminality.

To deport some of the men, the administration has relied on the Alien Enemies Act, a centuries-old law allowed for summary deportations in times of war. The Supreme Court said last week the administration could continue using the law for now to remove migrants from the US.

This story and headline have been updated with additional developments.

The-CNN-Wire
™ & © 2025 Cable News Network, Inc., a Warner Bros. Discovery Company. All rights reserved.