For Abrego García, a citizen of El Salvador, such legal complexities create a labyrinthine legal existence. The U.S. government has now publicly acknowledged that it erred in deporting him. After all, the Trump administration’s relentless anti-asylum actions have forced García into a Catch-22. He’s currently serving that time in the Cecot mega-prison in El Salvador, a facility crowded with prisons known for their oppressive cruelty. His case is illustrative of the nefarious intersection of U.S. immigration policy and foreign relations that occurred under the last administration.
Like millions of others under the Trump administration, they wrongly deported García. This enforcement action was one piece of a much larger, illegal initiative that deported hundreds of foreign-born people to El Salvador. This policy was fully realized through the unilateral action of Nayib Bukele, who has referred to himself as the “world’s coolest dictator.” He’s refused to contribute to bringing García back home. Three times the U.S. has asserted that García could be linked to terrorist groups or MS-13, a case from earlier this year. No evidence has been presented to support these dramatic claims.
A district court issued an injunction aimed at preventing García’s deportation, which one administration official described as ordering the “kidnap a citizen of El Salvador and fly him back here.” The Trump administration has insisted that it can’t help bring García back again because he’s in jail in El Salvador.
During an Oval Office meeting, both President Donald Trump and President Nayib Bukele appeared to mock the situation, highlighting the limitations of U.S. courts to influence foreign policy. Trump expressed disdain for the idea of allowing a criminal back into the country, stating, “They’d love to have a criminal released into our country.” That shows an alarming lack of appreciation for the legal issues at play in García’s case.
Today, García is stuck in a real-life Kafkaesque nightmare. In the meantime, the Trump administration has moved to make his fate rest outside the long arm of the law. Marco Rubio, the Secretary of State, reiterated the administration’s stance that U.S. courts cannot dictate foreign policy, further complicating García’s situation. Nayib Bukele made this point brutally honest. At that point, he told García, “I do not have the authority to readmit him to the United States,” leaving García stuck and with no recourse.
Even that would not account for the dramatic complexity that El Salvador’s current position adds to the situation. Official’s claim that sending García back would be like “smuggling” him into U.S, further complicating an already tangled legal mess.