El Salvador’s leader won’t return man deported from US in error

El Salvador will not return Kilmar Ábrego García, a Salvadoran national who the US government mistakenly deported to his home country where he is being held in a notorious mega-prison.

President Nayib Bukele made the comments during a meeting on Monday at the White House with Donald Trump, with whom he shares a strong relationship.

The US Supreme Court ruled last week that the Trump administration must “facilitate” the return of Mr Ábrego García, who lives in Maryland with his family and was granted protection from deportation by a court in 2019.

The Trump administration argues it cannot bring him home, and Attorney General Pam Bondi said it is “up to El Salvador if they want to return him”.

Trump praised Bukele for a new partnership under which the US can deport people it alleges are gang members to the Central American nation. Mr Garcia, whose lawyer said he is not a gang member, was among 238 Venezuelans and 23 Salvadorans the Trump administration deported to El Salvador’s Center for the Confinement of Terrorism (Cecot).

On Sunday, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said another 10 alleged gang members were sent there, despite legal challenges over those it already deported. The Us considers them suspected members of the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs, which are designated as “foreign terrorist organisations” by Trump.

In response to an earlier ruling by the US Supreme Court that the administration should facilitate the return of Mr Ábrego García to the US, lawyers wrote on Sunday that the issue was a matter of foreign policy – and outside the control of the courts.

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

The government has conceded Mr Ábrego García was deported due to an “administrative error”, though it also claims he is a member of the MS-13 gang – something his lawyer denies.

Officials were ordered to provide daily updates on steps being taken to bring Mr Ábrego García back to the US.

Relations between Trump and Bukele have flourished since Trump’s return to the White House in January, after Bukele agreed to take US deportees which has assisted Trump in his pledge to enact mass deportations.

Writing on X, Rubio said the alliance was an “example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere”.

Ahead of Bukele’s trip to Washington, Trump praised his counterpart, who has positioned himself as a strongman leader who is tough on crime.

Trump said Bukele was doing a “fantastic job” at imprisoning some “very bad people… that should never have been allowed into our country”.

Trump’s team has so far sent to El Salvador more than 200 migrants, who were accused of being gang members. Many of them were removed from the country using a law that dates back to 1798.

Family members of some previous deportees to the notorious maximum security Salvadoran prison, known as Cecot, have denied they have gang ties.

One woman in Venezuela, Myrelis Casique López, recently told BBC Mundo she became certain her son was among the detainees when she saw a photo of him being taken to Cecot.

She suggested he was targeted by American authorities due to his tattoos.

Announcing the removal of 10 more “criminals” in a social media post on Sunday, Rubio did not say whether the latest group was sent to Cecot specifically.

The administration previously published images of deportees arriving at the facility – and Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem paid a visit last month.

Asked whether he had concerns over allegations of human rights abuses at Cecot, Trump told reporters: “I don’t see it.”