President Donald Trump said Saturday that the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia — the Salvadoran man who was illegally deported in March — was not his decision.
“That wasn’t my decision,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News.
“It should be a very easy case” for federal prosecutors, the president told NBC News.
Trump said that he did not talk to Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele about Abrego Garcia’s return.
“There is no scenario where Abrego Garcia will be in the United States again,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem told lawmakers last month.
The return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, the Salvadoran national who was forcibly deported in March, was not President Donald Trump’s decision, he stated on Saturday.
“I didn’t make that choice,” Trump stated in an NBC News interview. “That is how the Department of Justice chose to proceed. “”.
Prosecutors announced the indictment this week, and Abrego Garcia was flown back to the United States on Friday to face federal human trafficking charges in Tennessee. Following months of the Trump administration’s admission that it had wrongfully deported him, which the Supreme Court ruled was unlawful and ordered the government to “facilitate” his return, there was a fierce legal and political uproar across the nation regarding the morality of the administration’s mass deportation policy.
The president told NBC News that federal prosecutors should have an easy case. In regards to Abrego Garcia’s return, Trump claimed he did not speak with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele.
Trump administration officials have opposed returning Abrego Garcia to the United States for months, despite the high court’s ruling. A. claiming that because he was in Salvadoran custody, it was beyond their control.
“Abrego Garcia will never again be in the United States,” Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem informed lawmakers last month.
Abrego Garcia was repeatedly accused of being a violent gang member by the Trump administration, a charge that his family and attorneys have categorically denied and that a federal judge has described as “a vague, uncorroborated allegation.”. “”.
The Supreme Court ordered the administration’s lawyers to expedite his return, but they did not do so right away, calling his deportation “an administrative error.”.
Sen was part of the fierce backlash that ensued. Van Hollen, Chris (D-Md. going to El Salvador to meet with him and insist on his repatriation. Democrats and Van Hollen were criticized by Republicans for standing up for him.
Attorneys for Abrego Garcia have asked the public to view the accusations with caution.
On Friday, Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg, one of his attorneys, told reporters, “They will do anything to avoid acknowledging that they made a mistake, which is what everyone knows happened, even if it means making some of the most absurd accusations imaginable.”.
According to the attorney, “he will not be found guilty of these offenses.”. “A jury will never take the evidence into consideration and conclude that this sheet metal worker is the mastermind behind a global MS-13 smuggling conspiracy. “”.
