Attorney General Pam Bondi has made it clear that Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran national deported to El Salvador, is not a “Maryland man” but a dangerous individual with ties to the notorious MS-13 gang — and he is “not coming back to our country.”
Garcia illegally entered the U.S. in 2011 as a teenager and was granted “withholding of removal” status in 2019 after claiming he was at risk of gang violence in El Salvador. Two different U.S. judges have ruled that he is a member of MS-13.
Discussing the matter at a press conference on Wednesday, Bondi asserted, “He is not coming back to our country. President Bukele said he was not sending him back. That’s the end of the story.”
Confirmed: Attorney General Bondi has reaffirmed that Abrego Garcia is not coming back to American soil!
Present Bukele has denied it! pic.twitter.com/zuwCHHn0TL
— Jay M.D. (@BorderCzarNews) April 16, 2025
“If he wanted to send him back, we would give him a plane ride back,” Bondi said of Bukele. “There was no situation ever where he was going to stay in this country. None, none.”
Bondi has argued that the Supreme Court ruling that the U.S. must “facilitate” Garcia’s return just means that a plane must be supplied if Bukele chooses to send him back.
There has been debate in the liberal media about whether Garcia was a member of MS-13, but Bondi shot down the claims.
“He is an illegal alien who has been living illegally in our country from El Salvador. ICE testified, and 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 said. “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,” the attorney general said. “He would have come back, had one extra step of paperwork and gone back again.”
Bondi added, “he’s from El Salvador. He’s in El Salvador, and that’s where the president plans on keeping him.”
