cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/28329298
The White House has dug in on its refusal to return a man who US officials have acknowledged was wrongly deported last month to an El Salvador mega-prison.
Press secretary Karoline Leavitt doubled down on accusations that Salvadoran national Kilmar Ábrego García was a member of the MS-13 gang.
Leavitt also accused the 29-year-old of domestic violence, citing records showing his US citizen wife once filed a protective order against him.
A Maryland judge has ordered President Donald Trump’s administration to bring Mr Ábrego García back to the US. But El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said on a visit to the White House this week that he did not “have the power” to return him.
That is false. If you’d read the court ruling you’d know that’s false. The only issue is that he was sent to El Salvador. As of yet, nobody else has agreed to take him and nobody has asked.
Most likely they’ll return him to the United States and he will stay in prison here or they’ll ship him to gitmo.
The court did not rule on that issue. You’re not getting that from the court. You’re getting that from the Trump administration. Specifically, from Trump’s Chief of Staff, misrepresenting the issue to the press.
From chat gpt
Yes, under U.S. immigration law, Kilmar Abrego Garcia could legally be deported to a country other than El Salvador, provided that country agrees to accept him. This is because his “withholding of removal” status specifically prohibits deportation to El Salvador due to the risk of persecution there, but it does not prevent removal to other nations.
However, in Garcia’s case, the U.S. government has not identified any third country willing to accept him, nor has it pursued such an option. Instead, he was mistakenly deported to El Salvador in March 2025, despite the legal prohibition against doing so. This action was later acknowledged by the U.S. government as an “administrative error.” 
Following his deportation, Garcia has been detained in El Salvador’s Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT), a maximum-security prison. Despite a U.S. Supreme Court order directing the government to facilitate his return, both U.S. and Salvadoran authorities have yet to act on this directive. 
In summary, while it’s legally permissible to deport Garcia to a third country other than El Salvador, such an action would require that country’s agreement to accept him, which has not occurred in this case