WATCH: El Salvador's president says he will not release man mistakenly deported from U.S

Nayib Bukele, the president of El Salvador, said Monday that he won’t return Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported last month as part of the Trump administration's purported efforts to send gang members to a notorious prison in that nation. Abrego Garcia is a citizen of El Salvador who was living legally in Maryland.

During an Oval Office meeting, President Donald Trump referred a reporter’s question about the case to Attorney General Pam Bondi. She said it was "up to El Salvador if they want to return him” and “if they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.”

Bukele called the question of whether El Salvador would return Abrego Garcia “preposterous.”

"How can I smuggle the terrorists into the United States?” he said. “I don't have the power to return him to the United States."

The comments from Bukele and the Trump administration come less than a week after the U.S. Supreme Court said the White House must "facilitate" his return. A U.S. district judge previously ordered the Trump administration to “effectuate” his return, but the justices said the lower court “should clarify its directive, with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

Bondi also said courts have ruled that Abrego Garcia was part of the gang MS-13. His attorneys have disputed that claim, saying there’s no evidence was in a gang. According to reporting by The Associated Press, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement arrested Abrego Garcia in 2019 and accused him of being part of MS-13, citing information that came from a confidential informant. An immigration judge ruled later that year to keep him in jail as his case continued. In October 2019, an immigration judge granted Abrego Garcia protection from being deported due to a “well-founded fear” of gang persecution, but rejected his request for asylum in the U.S. He was released, and ICE did not appeal.

The Trump administration said late last month in a court document that ICE “was aware of his protection from removal to El Salvador,” and Abrego Garcia’s deportation took place “because of an administrative error.”

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