El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said at the White House that he had no plans to return a man mistakenly deported from the United States, suggesting that doing so would be like smuggling a terrorist into the country.
His remarks came during an Oval Office meeting where multiple officials in President Donald Trump's administration said they were not required to bring back Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia, despite a US Supreme Court order saying they must facilitate the Maryland resident's return.
Mr Abrego Garcia's case has drawn attention as the Trump administration has deported hundreds of people to El Salvador with help from Mr Bukele, whose country is receiving $6 million to house the migrants in a high-security mega-prison.
The US government has described his deportation as an administrative error.
But in court filings and at the White House, the administration indicated it does not plan to ask for Mr Abrego Garcia back, raising questions about whether it is defying the courts.
In a court filing yesterday, a US Department of Homeland Security official said the agency "does not have authority to forcibly extract an alien from the domestic custody of a foreign sovereign nation."
Mr Bukele told reporters he did not have the power to return Mr Abrego Garcia to the US.
"The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?" Mr Bukele said, echoing the Trump administration's claim that Mr Abrego Garcia is a member of the MS-13 gang.
Mr Bukele's comments came shortly after US Attorney General Pam Bondi said at the same meeting that the US needed only to "provide a plane" if Mr Bukele wanted to return Mr Abrego Garcia.
Mr Abrego Garcia's lawyers have denied the allegation he is a gang member, saying the US has presented no credible evidence.
The US sent Mr Abrego Garcia to El Salvador on 15 March. Mr Trump called reporters asking whether the administration would follow the order for his return "sick people."
"The foreign policy of the United States is conducted by the president of the United States, not by a court," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said during the Oval Office meeting.
Mr Trump said he would send as many people living in the US illegally to El Salvador as possible and help Mr Bukele build new prisons.
The US on Saturday deported ten more people to El Salvador it alleges are gang members.
The migrants El Salvador accepts from the US are housed in a facility known as the Terrorism Confinement Centre.
Critics say the prison engages in human rights abuses and that Mr Bukele's crackdown on gangs has swept up many innocent people without due process.
Mr Bukele told Mr Trump he is accused of imprisoning thousands of people. "I like to say that we actually liberated millions," he said.
The US president reacted to Mr Bukele's comment. "Do you think I can use that?" Mr Trump asked.
The State Department last week lifted its advisory for US travellers to El Salvador to the safest level, crediting Mr Bukele for reducing gang activity and violent crime.
Lawyers and relatives of the migrants held in El Salvador say they are not gang members and had no opportunity to contest the US government assertion that they were.
The Trump administration says it vetted migrants to ensure they belonged to gangs including Tren de Aragua and MS-13, which it labels terrorist organisations.
Last month, after a judge said flights carrying migrants processed under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act should return to the US, Mr Bukele wrote "Oopsie... Too late" on social media alongside footage showing men being hustled off a plane at night.
An immigration judge had previously granted Mr Abrego Garcia protection from being deported to El Salvador, finding that he could face gang violence there. He held a permit to work in the US, where he had lived since 2011.
The US Supreme Court last week upheld a lower court ruling directing the administration to "facilitate and effectuate" his return. But it said the term "effectuate" was unclear and might exceed the authority of the district court judge.
A hearing is scheduled for today. Legal experts said Judge Paula Xinis may press the Trump administration to determine if it signalled to Mr Bukele that he should refuse to release Mr Abrego Garcia, which could amount to defiance of the court order's language to "facilitate" his return.
While the Supreme Court in its decision ordered Jurdge Xinis to clarify her order "with due regard for the deference owed to the executive branch in the conduct of foreign affairs," some legal experts said Mr Trump is likely defying the court by undermining Mr Abrego Garcia's release.
"All that is total claptrap as applied to a case like this, where the only reason why the foreign country is holding the person is because the US pushed them to do it and made an agreement under which they would do it," George Mason University constitutional law professor Ilya Somin said.
"It's very obvious that they could get him released if they wanted to."
Mr Trump told reporters on Friday that his administration would bring Mr Abrego Garcia back if the Supreme Court directed it to do so.
