President Trump insisted that Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who brought back to the U.S. from El Salvador, said he did have the ability to help return the wrongly deported Marylander, but was reluctant to do so because he believed he was a member of the gang.
“You can get him back and have a phone call on this table,” said ABC news correspondent Terry Moran.
“I can,” Mr. Trump replied.
Mr. Moran said Mr. Trump could call President Naibbu Buckley in El Salvador and immediately return Mr. Abreg Garcia.
“If he were the gentleman you said, I would have done that,” Mr. Trump said. “But he is not.” Mr. Trump added that government lawyers did not want to help Mr. Abreg Garcia return to the United States.
Mr. Trump’s comments not only undermined previous statements by his supreme aide, but were a blunt sign that his administration intends to double down on the court. Prior to an interview with ABC News, the government dug out Mr. Abreg Garcia, who refused to hear a Supreme Court order to help immigrants back to El Salvador. Trump officials said the El Salvador administration released him because he is now in the El Salvador prison.
The Justice Department argued that it could respond to the Supreme Court’s request that the government “promotes” Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release, allowing him to enter as long as he gets into the port.
“It depends on El Salvador if they want to return him,” Attorney General Pam Bondi said at an Oval Office meeting this month between Mr. Trump and Mr. Bucker. “It's not up to us.”
During that meeting, Stephen Miller, Mr. Trump's deputy chief of staff and architect of the immigration agenda, also argued that any questions about the release of Mr. Abrego Garcia would need to be addressed to Mr. Buckley, not Mr. Trump.
“Even the American media, it's very arrogant to tell us how El Salvador takes his own citizens as a starting point,” Miller said. “That's the president of El Salvador. Your question about the court can only be directed at him.”
Mr. Buckler also refused to help bring Mr. Abreg Garcia back to the United States, believing it was similar to the release of terrorists from prison.
But Mr. Trump seemed to admit in an interview with ABC News that he does have the right to bring Mr. Abreg Garcia back to the United States.
The White House did not respond to a request for comment Tuesday night.
Mr. Trump also told ABC News that his administration was right and sent Mr. Abreg Garcia to a prison in El Salvador for terrorists (called Secote’s terrorists), although local government officials had previously said in court that the deportation was an “administrative error.” Mr. Abrego Garcia, who illegally entered the United States in 2012, was arrested in March 2019 while searching for a job near Home Depot.
In October 2019, an immigration judge ruled that Mr. Abrego Garcia could not be deported back to El Salvador because he faced reliable fears of his persecution of partner Barrio 18. The judge allowed him to stay in the United States as a “refusal to remove him” and obtained a work permit.
But despite the order banning him from deportation, the government arrested him in March this year, accusing him of MS-13 and deporting him to a prison in El Salvador.
“This is a member of the MS-13 gang,” Trump said in an interview.
Mr. Abrego Garcia has never been charged or convicted of being a member of the gang. In the deportation lawsuit, some evidence was presented that he belonged to MS-13, which the judge believed was enough to bring him into custody when the matter was resolved. But other judges doubted the evidence.
“The evidence against Abrego Garcia is nothing more than his Chicago bull hat and hoodie, and an vague allegation that claims he belongs to the “Western” group of MS-13 in New York, who has never lived “who he has never lived,” “Paula Xinis, Paula Xinis, has worked hard to make Abrego Garcia dominate the orders of Abrego Garcia to make Abrego Garcia dominate.
In an interview with ABC News, Mr. Trump also argued that Abrego Garcia's tattoo skills were evidence of his gang connection. Mr. Trump accused him of being a member of MS-13, previously shared photos of the tattoo and made changes to the tag MS-13 above the symbol.
The tattoo itself seems to be real, but some gang experts question whether they are MS-13 symbols.
