Washington’s Salvadorans Approve of El Salvador’s President

The Kilmar Abrego Garcia deportation battle did not spark comments—but President Nayib Bukele seemed popular among Salvadorans in the U.S. capital.

Jose, who came to the United States from El Salvador decades ago, in Washington on April 18, 2025. Nathan Worcester/The Epoch Times

WASHINGTON—The afternoon of April 18, Good Friday, was warm and sunny in Washington—a clean, dry interlude before swampy weather settles in.

On the streets of the Mount Pleasant neighborhood, men from El Salvador, Guatemala, and other Central American countries played cards at tables and shot the breeze on stoops. Salvadoran restaurants, shops, and street vendors are particularly thick on the ground in this neighborhood, where Salvadorans have had a presence since the 1960s.