President Donald Trump welcomed President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador to the White House on Monday for a bilateral discussion that set the tone for a strengthened geopolitical alliance between the two nations.
Bukele told reporters during the Oval Office gathering that an illegal alien, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, deported back to his home country of El Salvador in March due to an “administrative error,” will not be returned to the United States.
“You’re suggesting I smuggle a terrorist into the United States,” Bukele told reporters during the Oval Office meeting. “I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.”
President Donald Trump meets with El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele in the Oval Office of the White House on April 14, 2025. Brendan Smialowski/AFP via Getty Images
Allegedly a member of MS-13, according to multiple U.S. immigration court filings, Abrego Garcia has resided in El Salvador’s Terrorist Confinement Center for more than a month.
The Supreme Court on April 10 ruled that the administration must “facilitate” the Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States.
Top Trump officials said it was ultimately up to El Salvador whether to return Abrego Garcia to the United States.
Referring to the Supreme Court ruling, Attorney General Pam Bondi said, “If they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio noted that foreign policy is an executive function, and “no court in the United States has a right to conduct the foreign policy of the United States.”
Trump negotiated a deal in January with the Central American nation to jail illegal immigrant gang members and terrorists deported from the United States.
Bukele, who has overseen a crackdown on crime and gangs since 2019, highlighted the transformation of El Salvador from the “murder capital of the world” to what he described as the “safest country in the Western hemisphere.”
“You cannot just free the criminals and think crime is going to go down magically,” Bukele said, suggesting Abrego Garcia will remain in custody. “We’re not very fond of releasing terrorists in our country.”
Trump and other White House officials, including deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, Bondi, and Homeland Security secretary Kristi Noem, expressed gratitude for the collaboration with El Salvador to imprison dangerous deportees.
“It has been wonderful for us to be able to have somewhere to send the worst of the worst, and someone to partner with,” Noem said during the meeting.
“And we’d like to continue that partnership, because it has been a powerful message of consequences.”
BOOKMARKS
Harvard University has rejected demands by the Trump administration to eliminate diversity, equity, and inclusion programs, ban face coverings during student protests, and reform its hiring and admissions standards. Harvard president Alan Garber said “The University will not surrender its independence or relinquish its constitutional rights,” but that stance could put Harvard’s $9 billion in federal funding in jeopardy. In response, the administration froze $2.2 billion in grants to the university.
Pfizer announced it will halt development of the weight loss drug danuglipron, after clinical trials showed possible liver damage in one patient. The drug, which works by stimulating insulin release and reducing appetite, caused nausea, vomiting, and diarrhea in patients during a previous trial.
Automaker stocks bounced back over 3 percent after Trump said he was weighing options to “help some of the car companies” that are transitioning to U.S.-based manufacturing. The president has imposed 25 percent tariffs on vehicles made outside the U.S., which could cost automakers an extra $108 billion according to analysts.
Li Pei Tan, 47, of Buford, Georgia has been sentenced to 6.5 years in prison for his role in a scheme laundering drug money. Court documents revealed Tan had laundered more that $3.5 million for international drug rings, including the Sinaloa Cartel and the Cartel de Jalisco Nueva Generación.
—Stacy Robinson
