President Trump said Tuesday that he could facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported to El Salvador last month, but suggested that he will not.
In an Oval Office interview with ABC News’s Terry Moran, Trump was asked about Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who had been living in Maryland under a protective order before being sent to the Central American country’s most notorious prison.
“You could get him back,” Moran said to the president. “There’s a phone on this desk.”
“I could,” Trump replied.
Moran continued: “You could pick it up, and with all the power of the presidency, you could call up the president of El Salvador and say, ‘Send him back,’ right now.”
“And if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that,” Trump told the senior correspondent. “But he’s not.”
The Trump administration acknowledged in court filings that Abrego Garcia’s deportation was an “administrative error,” but has resisted the Supreme Court’s order to facilitate his return.
Trump, in the interview, accused Abrego Garcia of being linked to gang activity and said the Justice Department lawyer who told a judge that the man’s deportation was a mistake “should not have said that” and had been “here a long time, was not appointed by us.” The administration has suspended the lawyer.
The White House has continued to insist that it is up to El Salvador and its president, Nayib Bukele, to send Abrego Garcia back to the U.S., if they wish to do so.
Democrats, who have railed against Trump’s immigration policies since returning to office just more than 100 days ago, have sounded the alarm over the administration’s moves and seeming embrace of the fight. Several lawmakers have also made trips to El Salvador to meet with Abrego Garcia.
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