Fact-checking Nayib Bukele and Trump officials on Kilmar Abrego Garcia's deportation

President Donald Trump s April inhabitants meeting with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele centered on the mistaken deportation of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia Trump administration administrators and Bukele mentioned Abrego Garcia would not be returned to the U S four days after the U S Supreme Court ruled that the Trump administration must facilitate Abrego Garcia s return On March the U S establishment deported Abrego Garcia to CECOT a Salvadoran mega-prison where Trump has sent hundreds of Salvadoran and Venezuelan men who were previously in the U S But Abrego Garcia had a protection that was supposed to prevent him from being deported to El Salvador The Justice Department called Abrego Garcia s deportation an oversight and an administrative error in a court filing During the Oval Office meeting Bukele and several Trump administration authorities made misleading statements about Abrego Garcia s event and the role the U S and El Salvador s governments play in his feasible return Here are the facts Attorney General Pam Bondi In two courts an immigration court and an appellate immigration court ruled that Abrego Garcia was a member of MS- This necessities context U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Abrego Garcia in as he was looking for day labor outside a Home Depot in Maryland A police informant advised police Abrego Garcia was an MS- member Immigration judges denied Abrego Garcia bond both initially and on appeal citing the informant s accusation In the initial denial the judge explained the determination of Abrego Garcia s gang membership appears to be trustworthy and is supported by evidence from the Gang Field Interview Sheet which in part referenced the informant Abrego Garcia s attorneys have repeatedly noted in court that the informant s accusation was fabricated The immigration judges decision to deny bond is not equivalent to ruling that Abrego Garcia was a gang member David Bier associate director of immigration studies at the libertarian Cato Institute revealed In immigration bond hearings detainees have the burden of proof to show they are neither a flight threat nor a danger to the region Abrego Garcia failed to meet his burden to show that he was not a danger Bier commented That s not the same as the ruling body proving affirmatively that he was an MS- member The immigration judge is only taking at face value any evidence that the administration provides Bier disclosed It is not assessing its underlying validity at that stage Abrego Garcia later received an immigration protection called withholding of removal Granting that protection required the Department of Homeland Precaution to decide Abrego Garcia was not a danger to the assurance of the United States Bier revealed quoting U S immigration law The Trump administration did not appeal these determinations or the granting of withholding of removal Bier explained So at that time it did not consider him a threat and no new evidence has been presented since then Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg an attorney for Abrego Garcia described PolitiFact his client has never been convicted of any crime gang-related or otherwise and we also unveiled no court evidence he had been convicted Neither of the immigration court proceedings constitute a conviction because they were not trials White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller When President Trump declared MS- to be a foreign terrorist organization that meant that Abrego Garcia was no longer eligible under federal law for any form of immigration relief in the United States It s inaccurate that the U S ruling body s February designation of MS- as a foreign terrorist organization automatically revoked Abrego Garcia s protection from removal Aaron Reichlin-Melnick a senior fellow at the American Immigration Council explained People who are proven members of a terrorist organization are ineligible for protection from removal But in Abrego Garcia s event to revoke his protections the U S administration would have been required under law to reopen his immigration court proceedings and prove to the judge that he was a member of MS- and therefore no longer eligible for withholding The executive certainly could have sought to prove that Abrego Garcia was not eligible for any form of immigration relief but it did not do so Bier mentioned Bukele Returning Abrego Garcia to the U S would be akin to smuggl ing a terrorist into the United States There is no evidence that Abrego Garcia is a terrorist As we noted above it s unproven that Abrego Garcia is a member of MS- and therefore a terrorist after the gang s foreign terrorist designation Abrego Garcia is being held in a Salvadoran prison at the U S governing body s request not because he committed a crime in El Salvador Reichlin-Melnick stated Therefore Bukele could release Abrego Garcia and the U S governing body could grant him humanitarian parole as part of the court order requiring them to facilitate his return Reichlin-Melnick announced Prison guards transfer deportees from the U S alleged to be Venezuelan gang members to the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca El Salvador March El Salvador presidential press office via AP File Secretary of State Marco Rubio This individual is a citizen of El Salvador He was illegally in the United States and was returned to his country That s where you deport people back to their country of origin This is misleading Although it s accurate that people are generally deported to their country of origin or another country that accepts their deportation that is not the matter for Abrego Garcia Abrego Garcia had a withholding of removal order which prevents people from being deported to their home country in Abrego Garcia s event El Salvador and allows them to legally work in the U S People with this protection can be deported to another country if that country accepts to take them In an immigration judge granted Abrego Garcia withholding of removal The judge entered a deportation order and informed the establishment it could not use that order to deport Abrego Garcia to El Salvador Abrego Garcia received the protection because when he was a minor living in El Salvador a gang had tried to recruit him and extort money from his mother leading to death threats U S Immigration and Customs Enforcement lawyers acknowledged in a March court filing they were aware of the restriction on deporting Abrego Garcia to El Salvador and called his removal an oversight and an administrative error Miller We won the Supreme Court situation - and people like CNN are portraying it as a loss This is misleading On April the Supreme Court ruled in an unsigned order that the U S regime had to facilitate Abrego Garcia s release from custody in El Salvador and ensure that his circumstance is handled as it would have been had he not been improperly sent to El Salvador The Supreme Court also urged the lower court to clarify its directive with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs The lower court had ordered that the U S facilitate and effectuate Abrego Garcia s release On April the federal judge stated the U S administration had failed to comply with the court s order and ordered the governing body to submit daily updates on Abrego Garcia s location and what approaches the authorities has taken to facilitate his return PolitiFact Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson contributed to this assessment