President Donald Trump's top advisers and Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, said Monday that they had no basis for the small Central American nation to return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Maryland man who was wrongly deported there last month.
Watch Trump and Bukele's meeting in the player above.
Trump administration officials emphasized Abrego Garcia, who was sent to a notorious gang prison in El Salvador, was a citizen of that country and the U.S. has no say in his future. And Bukele, who has been a vital partner for the Trump administration in its deportation efforts, said he does not "have the power to return him to the United States."
The Supreme Court has called for the Trump administration to "facilitate" Abrego Garcia's return.
Trump referred questions about Abrego Garcia to Attorney General Pam Bondi, who said he was illegally in the U.S. and that courts have ruled that Abrego Garcia was a member of the MS-13 gang.
"That's up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That's not up to us," Bondi said.
She called the issue "international matters" and "foreign affairs" and said the U.S. would facilitate Abrego Garcia's return of El Salvador wanted to send him back by providing an airplane.
Bukele was asked if he plans to return Abrego Garcia and he asked how he could return him and said it was "preposterous." He called Abrego Garcia "a terrorist" and that he had no power to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
In a complaint, Abrego Garcia's lawyers have disputed the government's claims that he was in a gang.