“We suggest the judge contact President Bukele,” said White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt
After President Donald Trump‘s Department of Homeland Security admitted that it deported an innocent Maryland man to an El Salvadoran mega-prison known for torture and human-rights abuses, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt brushed off a judge’s order to bring him back.
“We suggest the judge contact President Bukele because we are unaware of the judge having jurisdiction or authority over the country of El Salvador,” Leavitt said in a statement on Friday, referring to El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
Bukele responded to news posted by an X account called “End Wokeness” of the judge’s order by sharing a GIF of a confused cartoon bunny.
Kilmar Abrego Garcia was reportedly arrested in front of his 5-year-old son, who is autistic and nonverbal, and his wife only learned where he had been sent to after seeing a propaganda video produced by Bukele that showed her husband and other detainees being manhandled by El Salvadoran law enforcement. Abrego Garcia’s wife and son are both citizens. He was legally granted protection from deportation after immigration officials claimed in 2019 that an informant had named Abrego Garcia as a member of the gang MS-13. His lawyer said the accusations of gang affiliation are false, and previously directed The Atlantic to records of the incident in which the police officers who initially detained him were unable to find any reliable evidence to link Abrego Garcia to MS-13. Abrego Garcia’s attorneys said he has no criminal record in the U.S. or any other country.
In the court filing on Monday, the Trump administration admitted that “on March 15, although ICE was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador, Abrego Garcia was removed to El Salvador because of an administrative error.”
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis in Maryland on Friday ordered the administration arrange the return of Abrego Garcia. However, the Trump administration immediately appealed the ruling, arguing that they do not have the authority to bring back Abrego Garcia since he is in the custody El Salvador.
Noah Bullock, executive director of Cristosal, a human rights organization, told Rolling Stone earlier this week that the Trump administration deporting people without convictions to El Salvador with no chance to defend themselves amounts to a “forced disappearance,” a violation of international human rights law.
In 2024, Cristosal published an in-depth report detailing alleged systemic torture within El Salvador’s prison system, and the unreported deaths and disappearances of inmates.
