Topline
White House adviser Stephen Miller said Monday that bringing a Maryland father the Trump administration mistakenly deported back to the U.S. would amount to “kidnapping,” because he is now in the custody of El Salvador—despite a Supreme Court order that the White House must “facilitate” Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s release.
President Donald Trump meets with President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador in the Oval Office of the … More
Key Facts
Miller made the “kidnapping” characterization during an Oval Office meeting between President Donald Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele Monday.
Earlier Monday, Miller said during a Fox News interview that in order to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., the government would, “have to kidnap an El Salvador citizen against the will of his government.”
The Trump administration has refused to comply with a U.S. District Court order to “facilitate and effectuate” Abrego Garcia’s return after admitting it deported him on March 15 to El Salvador’s notorious terrorism confinement center because of a “clerical error,” despite a judge in 2019 granting him protection from deportation because of gang threats he was likely to face in his home country.
The Supreme Court on Thursday partially upheld the lower court’s ruling, determining it was correct in ordering the Trump administration to “to ‘facilitate’ Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and ensure his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador,” according to the unsigned opinion.
Bukele said he doesn’t have jurisdiction over Garcia either, calling the question as to whether he would send him back to the U.S. “preposterous,” telling reporters “I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.”
