Attorney General Pam Bondi doubled down on the Trump administration’s claim that it’s “up to El Salvador” whether Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, an illegal immigrant in Maryland who was wrongfully deported last month, can return to the U.S.
Speaking to reporters at a press briefing on Wednesday, Bondi reiterated her earlier claim that it is up to El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele whether his country opts to return Abrego Garcia to the U.S., even though officials acknowledged in court his deportation was an administrative error.
“He is not coming back to our country,” Bondi told Fox News on Wednesday, in response to a question about his legal status during the briefing.
Abrego Garcia is a Salvadorian national who had been living in Maryland before he was deported in March. Now, he is believed to be held in his home country’s sprawling, maximum-security prison. Both a federal court and the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to “facilitate” his release and return to the U.S. for proper deportation proceedings.
‘UP TO EL SALVADOR’: TRUMP ADMIN PUNTS ON RETURN OF WRONGFULLY DEPORTED MARYLAND RESIDENT
Attorney General Pam Bondi and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, center right, sit nearby as President Donald Trump meets with El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele, left, in the Oval Office of the White House. (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Bondi made clear Wednesday that they continue to see the issue as squarely in the purview of Bukele.
“President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story,” she said. “If he wanted to send him back, we would give him a plane ride back. There was no situation, ever, where he was going to stay in this country. None.”
Her remarks come after the Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court’s order that requires the government to “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s release from custody in El Salvador and to “ensure that his case is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador.”
On Tuesday, a federal judge in Maryland ordered Trump lawyers and plaintiffs to conduct an “intense,” expedited two-week discovery process into efforts made to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return – including ordering top DHS and State Department officials to be deposed, under oath, in efforts to secure his return as the court weighs whether the Trump administration has been acting in good faith.
“Cancel vacations, cancel other appointments,” U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis told both parties Tuesday, clearing the way for what she said would be an extremely fast-paced timeframe.
“There will be no tolerance for gamesmanship or grandstanding,” she said of the process.
Bondi also emphasized that Abrego Garcia is not a U.S. citizen and had been living “illegally in our country from El Salvador.”
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A prison officer guards a cell at the maximum security penitentiary Center for the Compulsory Housing of Terrorism on Apr. 4, 2025 in Tecoluca, San Vicente, El Salvador. (Alex Peña/Getty Images)
That is not in dispute. A U.S. court granted Abrego Garcia temporary protected status in 2019, finding he faced a “clear probability of future persecution” if returned, and that “El Salvadoran authorities were and would be unable or unwilling to protect him.”
Neither the Supreme Court ruling nor the lower court orders require Abrego Garcia to remain in the U.S. Rather, the courts have stressed that individuals slated for deportation must be granted certain due process protections under the U.S. Constitution, including habeas protections that allow them to challenge their removal in court.
It was not the first time this week that Trump officials have suggested that El Salvador should have the final say on Abrego Garcia’s status.
They also made this claim on Monday, when President Donald Trump hosted Bukele at the White House for a bilateral summit.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was deported to an El Salvador prison last month. (Fox News)
When asked by reporters about Abrego Garcia, Bondi and other Cabinet officials said the matter was up to Bukele’s administration.
“That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,” Bondi said then. “The Supreme Court ruled precedent that if El Salvador wanted to return him,” she continued. “This is international matters, foreign affairs.”
Bondi added that “if they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it – meaning to provide a plane.”
El Salvador has received hundreds of migrants from the U.S., including more than 200 Venezuelan nationals abruptly removed in March under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, and alleged members of the Salvadorian gang MS-13, under a $6 million deal struck with the U.S. earlier this year.
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White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller doubled down on Bondi’s assertion, noting that Abrego Garcia is a Salvadorian national.
“It’s very arrogant, even for American media, to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens as a starting point,” Miller told reporters, claiming that “two courts” had found Abrego Garcia to be a member of the MS-13 gang.
