President Trump Meets With El Salvador President Nayib Bukele At The White House
Source: Win McNamee / Getty

The Trump administration says Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Maryland man who was wrongfully deported and sent to El Salvador’s Terrorist Confinement Center, is alive.

“He is alive and secure in that facility. He is detained pursuant to the sovereign, domestic authority of El Salvador,” Michael G. Kozak, a senior official in the State Department’s Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs wrote in a filing to a federal judge, NPR reports. 

None of that matters, though. On Monday, President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador visited the White House and sat in the Oval Office and told everyone in attendance that the idea that he would send Abrego Garcia — who is not a member of a gang, and has committed no crimes — back from one of the most notorious prisons in the world is “preposterous.”

When asked by a reporter if he planned on returning Abrego Garica — who was never convicted of an actual crime — Bukele said, “How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.”

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So now a Salvadoran man living legally in the United States is a terrorist? Abrego Garcia is a threat to America? We are stepping into very dangerous territory. Either the United States told El Salvador that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist, or they inferred it on their own. Either way, it’s maddening the lengths to which this administration and those aiding them will go to not only ignore the law but also trample on people’s rights. 

It’s mindboggling to think that this is where we are, but because I’ve seen all episodes of 24 (I even watched the Black version which should’ve been called “deuce fo,”) and saw Stephen Miller’s hairline disappear and then reappear on national television only to disappear again, I don’t trust anything this administration says and I’m going to need to see proof of life. 

NPR notes that the Trump administration’s filing was a response to federal judge Paula Xinis’ order that the administration provide daily updates on what they’re doing to facilitate Abrego Garcia’s return to the U.S.

The Supreme Court upheld Xinis’s ruling that Abrego Garcia be returned because he should’ve never been deported. Xinis “also ordered the Justice Department to provide an immediate update on his location and status, the steps the government has taken so far to bring Abrego Garcia back and what additional actions it is considering.”

This is why things have been sketchy for any of us who have watched “Dateline.” For some reason, the Trump administration keeps arguing the legality of Kilmar Abrego Garcia’s deportation instead of just bringing him home. 

Kilmar Abrego Garcia Update
Source: The Washington Post / Getty

These detentions are in conjunction with the El Salvadorian government, so the U.S. and El Salvador are working together. If you can say with certainty that Abrego Garcia is alive, then someone inside the Trump administration would’ve had to have spoken with someone in the El Salvadorian prison and how hard would it be to say, “We need you to send one back”?

Instead, the Trump administration has asked for more time to understand the Supreme Court ruling before deciding its next steps. Meanwhile, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who has lived in Maryland for some 15 years and was given legal status in 2019, was deported for no reason and has no criminal record. 

The wildest part of all of this is that shortly after his arrest and deportation, the Trump administration admitted that it was an “administrative error” and has been dragging its feet ever since on ensuring Abrego Garcia’s return. 

“We are incredulous, Abrego Garcia’s attorney, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, said in a statement to NPR.  “Twenty-four more hours and still no answers as to what they’ve done so far, and what they’re planning to do going forward, to carry out the Supreme Court’s ruling.”

“The continued delay in executing a Supreme Court mandate is not only unacceptable—it is a direct affront to the rule of law,” Murray Osorio PLLC, an immigration law firm Sandoval-Moshenberg is also representing Abrego Garcia, noted in a statement.

“The Department of Homeland Security and the Department of State must act without further delay and provide full transparency about the steps being taken to ensure Mr. Abrego Garcia’s safe return.”

Something tells me that the worst may have already happened. If President Nayib Bukele actually believes that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist, then why would he be inclined to protect him? It seems like everyone besides the American people has been in on the kidnapping and incarceration of a man who has committed no crime. And if this doesn’t upset both sides of the aisle, I don’t know what will. 

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