SHOWDOWN: El Salvador’s Bukele Snubs Obama Judge, Says He Won’t Return Alleged MS-13 Gang Member Kilmar Abrego Garcia Back to US (VIDEO)

President Trump welcomed El Salvadorian President Nayib Bukele to the White House on Monday.

In an Oval Office meeting, Bukele said he will not return alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the United States.

Kilmar Abrego Garcia is an El Salvadorian national who was illegally residing in Maryland. In 2019, an immigration judge ordered Abrego Garcia, an alleged member of the dangerous MS-13 gang, removed from the US.

Abrego Garcia is currently being held at El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison.

CNN’s Kaitlan Collins asked Bukele if he plans to return Abrego Garcia after an Obama judge ordered him to be released from the CECOT prison and brought to the US.

“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous,” Bukele told CNN’s Kaitlan Collins in the Oval Office on Monday.

WATCH:

President Trump and President Bukele both made clear in the Oval Office today that they do not intend to return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the U.S. following the Supreme Court’s ruling. “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it.… pic.twitter.com/FZbvEySzmk

— Kaitlan Collins (@kaitlancollins) April 14, 2025

The US Supreme Court last Thursday ordered the US to facilitate the return of alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose deportation was previously blocked by a judge over his safety concerns. However, as The Gateway Pundit reported, Trump’s DOJ argued that “federal courts have no authority to direct the Executive Branch to conduct foreign relations in a particular way or engage with a foreign sovereign in a given manner,” and that they cannot forcibly take the individual back or force El Salvador to return him.

On Friday, US District Judge of the US District Court for the District of Maryland, Paula Xinis set a new hearing in the case of alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia after the Supreme Court ruled the US must facilitate his return from El Salvador.

The US Supreme Court on Thursday ordered the US to “facilitate” the return of alleged MS-13 gang member Kilmar Abrego Garcia.

Judge Xinis slammed the Trump Administration during Friday’s hearing and demanded ‘daily updates’ on Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts.

The judge said the Trump Admin has made “no meaningful effort to comply” with her order demanding the physical location and custodial status of Abrego Garcia.

The judge demanded daily updates on Abrego Garcia.

Trump’s DOJ hit back over the weekend said Judge Xinis did not clarify what “facilitate” meant as the Supreme Court ordered her to do so DOJ lawyers explained what it means in immigration.

Trump said he doesn’t need to ask El Salvador to do anything and Bukele made it clear on Monday that he was not going to smuggle a terrorist into the US.

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