Kilmar Abrego Garcia, an alleged member of MS-13 and an illegal immigrant deported to El Salvador, will not be coming back to the United States, Bondi says.
Attorney General Pam Bondi said Wednesday that Kilmar Abrego Garcia—the Salvadoran man mistakenly deported by the Trump administration in March despite a court order protecting him—will not be returning to the United States.
“He is not coming back to our country. President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story,” Bondi told reporters at an April 16 press conference in Washington, referring to remarks made earlier this week by El Salvador’s president, Nayib Bukele, who rejected the idea of returning him.
“If he wanted to send him back, we would give him a plane ride back,“ Bondi said. ”There was no situation ever where he was going to stay in this country. None, none.”
Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old illegal immigrant and alleged MS-13 gang member from El Salvador, was arrested on March 12 and three days later was placed on a deportation flight to El Salvador.
Before his deportation, Abrego Garcia had been living in Maryland with his U.S. citizen wife and children. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him “withholding of removal” status after finding he faced credible threats from the rival Barrio 18 gang if deported.
Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has said that Garcia’s removal was an “administrative error,” acknowledging it had been aware of the court-ordered protection and failed to flag it properly on the flight manifest. Garcia remains detained in El Salvador at a facility that houses individuals accused of terrorism.
At Wednesday’s press conference, Bondi acknowledged the mistake, saying that “one additional step in paperwork” had been missed. She also said the deportation was ultimately justified.
“He’s from El Salvador. He’s in El Salvador. And that’s where the president plans on keeping him,” she said.
Bondi said Garcia is a member of MS-13, a transnational criminal organization recently designated by the U.S. government as a foreign terrorist group.
“He would have come back, had one extra step of paperwork and gone back again,” Bondi said of what would happen if Garcia were to be returned to the United States.
By Tom Ozimek
