Trump Goes Nuclear On Immigrants

President Trump is doubling down on deportations, vowing that individuals suspected of gang affiliations who are in the U.S. illegally will continue to be sent to El Salvador’s high-security mega-prison even as court orders call for the return of at least one deportee.

During a meeting at the White House on Monday, Trump welcomed El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele for a public discussion alongside senior U.S. officials. The two leaders were aligned in their message: deportations to El Salvador’s CECOT prison will continue, and the U.S. will not force the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland resident who was wrongly deported there last year despite a judge’s order barring the removal due to threats to his life.

The U.S. is currently paying $6 million to El Salvador to house foreign detainees in the CECOT facility a massive, maximum-security complex in Tecoluca capable of holding up to 40,000 prisoners. To date, the U.S. has transferred approximately 250 Venezuelan nationals to the prison, including ten individuals over the past weekend, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio.

The case of Abrego Garcia, however, has reignited tensions over the scope of presidential authority. Last week, the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously ruled that the government must “facilitate” Garcia’s return but stopped short of explicitly requiring that the U.S. “effectuate” his transfer.

At Monday’s event, Trump turned to Attorney General Pam Bondi for comment. “That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him,” she said. “That’s not up to us.”

Bukele, seated next to Trump, dismissed the court order outright. “How could I return him to the United States? I smuggle him to the United States? Of course I’m not going to do it,” he said. “The question is preposterous.”

Though the administration has admitted that Garcia’s deportation was due to a “clerical error,” it maintains that U.S. courts lack jurisdiction over foreign policy decisions executed by the Executive Branch. Officials have also pointed to the fact that the same immigration judge who barred Garcia’s removal acknowledged there was evidence suggesting he may have MS-13 ties.

“I don’t understand what the confusion is,” said Rubio. “This individual is a citizen of El Salvador. He was illegally in the U.S. That’s where you deport people, back to their country. No court in the U.S. has the right to conduct the foreign policy of the U.S.”

Trump went even further during the meeting, saying he would consider sending violent American citizens to El Salvador’s prison system as well a statement likely to fuel even more controversy around the administration’s tough-on-crime agenda and use of foreign detention.