A day after ABC News’ exclusive interview with President Donald Trump, an attorney for wrongfully deported Kilmar Abrego Garcia told ABC News he believes the Trump administration “is talking out of both sides of its mouth.”
“We have [border czar] Tom Homan saying that the deportation was not a mistake, and then we have the president yesterday flatly conceding that he has the power to solve this problem with a phone call, and he hasn’t made that phone call yet,” said attorney Simon Sandoval-Moshenberg.
Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran native who has been living with his wife and children in Maryland, was deported in March to El Salvador — despite a 2019 court order barring his deportation to that country due to fear of persecution — after the Trump administration claimed he was a member of the criminal gang MS-13, which his wife and attorney deny.
Tuesday, in an Oval Office interview with ABC News’ Terry Moran to mark his 100th day in office, President Trump said he “could” secure the return of Abrego Garcia, and “if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that” — before adding, “I’m not the one making this decision.”
“You’re the president,” Moran told Trump.
“I — no, no, no, no. If — follow the law. You want me to follow the law. If I were the president that just wanted to do anything, I’d probably keep him right where he is–” Trump said.
Several members of Trump’s administration, including Attorney General Pam Bondi and White House deputy chief of staff Stephen Miller, have suggested that the matter is the jurisdiction of El Salvador.
Undated photo provided by the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, a man identified by Jennifer Vasquez Sura as her husband, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, is led by force by guards through the Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador.
U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland via AP
In a related development, multiple sources told ABC News Wednesday that Secretary of State Marco Rubio has been in touch with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele about Abrego Garcia — but the details of their contact were not immediately clear.
In a Cabinet meeting Wednesday, Rubio would not say whether there had been any form of contact.
“I’ll never tell you that,” Rubio said. “And you know who else? I’ll never tell a judge, because the conduct of our foreign policy belongs to the president of the United States and the executive branch, not some judge.”
The Trump administration, while acknowledging that Abrego Garcia was deported to El Salvador in error, has said that his alleged MS-13 affiliation makes him ineligible to return to the United States.
In 2019, an immigration judge determined that Abrego Garcia was removable from the U.S. based on allegations of his gang affiliation made by local police in Maryland. But Abrego Garcia was subsequently granted withholding of removal to his home country of El Salvador.
U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis early this month ruled that the Trump administration must “facilitate” Abrego Garcia’s return to the United States, and the U.S. Supreme Court unanimously affirmed that ruling, “with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”
