Attorney General Pam Bondy told reporters Monday that it would be “until El Salvador” whether Maryland residents would choose to return Kilmer Armando Abrego Garcia, a Trump official confirmed.
Her remarks came as president Donald Trump Hundreds of migrants were deported to El Salvador for a bilateral summit that focused primarily on immigration, hosting President Naive Buquere at the White House on Monday, with the US detaining in the country’s largest security prison.
Asked by a reporter on Monday about Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was accidentally deported to El Salvador, Bondi said the matter was left to the Buquere administration.
“If they want to return him, it’s up to El Salvador, and that’s not up to us,” Bondy said.
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Pam Bondy, U.S. Attorney General and Secretary of State Marco Rubio (second R) are sitting nearby when President Donald Trump meets El Salvador President Naive Buquere at the White House Oval Office in Washington, DC on April 14, 2025. (Get McNamee/Getty Images)
“The Supreme Court ruled precedents if El Salvador wanted to return him,” she continued. “This is an international issue, foreign affairs.”
Bondi said, “If they want to return him, we would promote it — meaning we will provide the plane.”
Bukere received a warm welcome from Trump. Trump has praised the Salvador leader as a “fantastic” president who “handles a lot of issues.”
He also attended a meeting on Monday to attend several Trump Cabinet members, including the aforementioned Vice President Bondi, Vice President J.D. Vance, Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Secretary of Homeland Security Christie Noem, and White House Deputy Director of Policy and the architect of Trump’s immigration policy.
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President Donald Trump and El Salvador President Naive Buquel will shake hands as they hold a meeting in New York on September 25, 2019, on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)
The meeting comes as El Salvador received hundreds of immigrants from the United States, including more than 200 Venezuelan citizens, who were suddenly removed in March under the Alien Enemy Act of 1798.
Recently, US officials said they Deported 10 more immigrants In El Salvador on the weekend.
At the time of this writing, the Trump administration has not returned any individuals sent to the vast security prisons in El Salvador. They were illegally deported, including a Venezuelan national who may have been misidentified as a member of the Tren de Aragua gang, and one Maryland resident recognized by US officials.
In March, after the first immigrant flights arrived in El Salvador, Buquere took footage of the arrival to social media despite a federal judge’s order that the flight would “quickly” return to US soil.
“Oopsie…too late,” he said in X.
While El Salvador has already embraced hundreds of immigrants from the United States and has garnered praise from President Trump and other hard-line immigrant Hawks, critics have warned that rescue could violate legitimate process protections under the US Constitution. Immigration advocates also raised concerns that deported people had no opportunity to challenge their removal in court.
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DHS Secertary Kristi Noem will speak on March 26, 2025 during a tour of the Terrorist Confinement Centre in Tekolka, El Salvador. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
Most recently, a federal judge last week ordered Trump officials to provide courts with daily updates on efforts to “promote” Maryland resident Abrego Garcia’s return.
In a court filing Sunday evening, Justice Department lawyers argued that there was no need to comply with the judge’s order “promoting” the return of Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a prison in El Salvador where “administrative errors” were granted.
They argued that the order itself is likely beyond the power of the court, and that “there is no authority to direct administrators to engage in diplomatic relations in a particular way or engage in foreign sovereignty in a particular way.”
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Meanwhile, Trump officials continue to publicly request against so-called “activist judges.”
DHS Executive Director Christie Noem on Monday praised the Supreme Court’s recent emergency ruling in favor of the law to help Trump’s use of alien enemies deport certain migrants more quickly.
The Supreme Court’s decision stated, “It was a very clear message to other judges in this country… [to] “Stop acting as if the president has the authority to decide the foreign policy and national security decisions he is making to protect his citizens,” she said in an interview with Fox & Friends.
“We need to stop this and stop liberal judges from trying to direct President Trump what he is doing to make America safe again,” she said.
