LEILA FADEL, HOST:
Despite a Supreme Court order to facilitate the return of a Maryland man who was wrongfully deported to a Salvadoran prison, the White House appears to have no intention of doing that.
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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Why don't you just say, isn't it wonderful that we're keeping criminals out of our country? Why can't you just say that?
FADEL: And Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele says he doesn't plan to release the man either.
MICHEL MARTIN, HOST:
The Trump administration has accused Kilmar Abrego Garcia of being a gang member. His attorney says that is not true and there's been no evidence presented publicly to support that. The Salvadoran president was in the Oval Office yesterday meeting with President Trump.
FADEL: NPR White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez is covering this story, and he joins us now. Good morning, Franco.
FRANCO ORDOÑEZ, BYLINE: Good morning, Leila.
FADEL: Franco, tell us more about the situation here involving Kilmar Abrego Garcia.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah. He is a Salvadoran citizen who has lived in Maryland for about 15 years. He was granted some protections by the court, but then last month, he was deported along with hundreds of other migrants to a Salvadoran mega prison. But the Supreme Court ordered the Trump administration to facilitate his return.
FADEL: So wait, Franco. Are they ignoring a Supreme Court ruling?
ORDOÑEZ: Well, I mean, first, the Trump team is downplaying this as a paperwork issue. They insist Abrego Garcia has ties to the MS-13 gang. Again, his lawyer says he's not a member. So at this meeting yesterday, Attorney General Pam Bondi said the Supreme Court's order to facilitate simply means they need to provide a plane to return him. But first, El Salvador has to release him. And it's clear the Trump administration has no intention of asking Bukele to do that. Here is White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller speaking from the Oval Office.
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STEPHEN MILLER: He's a citizen of El Salvador. So it's very arrogant, even, for American media to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens, as a starting point.
ORDOÑEZ: And Secretary of State Marco Rubio also described this as an international matter and said that no court in the U.S. had the right to conduct U.S. foreign policy.
FADEL: So what are the implications of this? Attorneys say there are more cases like Abrego Garcia where people are wrongfully being accused of being gang members.
ORDOÑEZ: Yeah, that's right. The American Civil Liberties Union is challenging the administration's use of a really old law to deport alleged gang members. It's called the Alien Enemies Act. I spoke with Lee Gelernt, one of their attorneys.
LEE GELERNT: This is a case not just about legal technicalities but American values. We've admitted we sent this individual to El Salvador by mistake. We all know that he may spend the rest of his life in this brutal prison, and yet the United States is battling in court not to bring him back.
ORDOÑEZ: Gelernt says the case goes well beyond just this one man and really could have big implications on all these other cases. I mean, more than 200 migrants were deported to the prison without due process using the old law. And he argues that the U.S. should not be using a system where people have no due process, especially if the U.S. is not willing to correct its mistakes.
FADEL: So is Trump having any second thoughts about this?
ORDOÑEZ: I mean, it doesn't appear that way. In fact, he was talking yesterday about expanding work with Bukele. Trump said he should build more prisons and even floated the idea of sending some U.S. convicts to El Salvador, but it's not clear that would be legal.
FADEL: That's White House correspondent Franco Ordoñez. Thank you, Franco.
ORDOÑEZ: Thank you. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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