Attorney General Pam Bondi on Wednesday said a deported illegal migrant whom the Supreme Court and President Donald Trump’s critics say should be sent back to the U.S. will not be returning.
The Trump administration has acknowledged that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant who was living in Maryland and has had a work permit since 2019, was deported in March in violation of an immigration judge’s order blocking his removal to El Salvador.
U.S. officials, though, said in court filings on Sunday that they were not obligated to help Abrego Garcia get out of prison despite a Supreme Court ruling directing the government to “facilitate” his return to the U.S.
During a press conference Wednesday to announce a lawsuit against Maine, Bondi took that a step further. She said that despite “one additional step in paperwork” that failed to be completed before the deportation, Abrego Garcia is not returning.
“He is an illegal alien who has been living illegally in our country from El Salvador. ICE testified, an immigration judge ruled he was a member of MS-13. An appellate judge ruled he was a member of MS-13. Hard stop,” Bondi told reporters. “He should not be in our country.
“He was deported. They needed one additional step in paperwork, but now, MS-13 is characterized as they should be as an FTO, as a foreign terrorist organization. So he is not coming back to our country.”
While meeting with Trump in the Oval Office on Monday, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said he has no intention of returning Garcia to the U.S.
“President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story,” Bondi told reporters. “If he wanted to send him back, we would give him a plane ride back.
“There was no situation ever where he [Garcia] was going to stay in this country. None. None. He would have come back, had one extra step of paperwork, and gone back again.”
White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller on Monday insisted that Abrego Garcia could be deported, despite the court order.
“His status was he’s an illegal alien who’s been ordered deported, which means he can be indefinitely detained and removed to any other country in the world,” Miller said.
An immigration judge had previously granted Abrego Garcia protected status, finding that he could face gang violence if deported to El Salvador, and he held a permit to work in the United States.
Reuters contributed to this story.
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