White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said Monday that the Trump administration will continue sending Tren de Aragua aliens in the United States to El Salvador.
Miller’s comments came in response to a reporter who asked if the administration planned “on ramping up deportations to El Salvador?”
“As an example, there are thousands of either Tren de Aragua members left in this country or their affiliates and associates, so obviously some portion of those will be going to El Salvador as part of our effort to eradicate this foreign terrorist organization from the United States,” Miller responded during the gaggle outside the West Wing.
“But there’s no upper limit to the agreement. We’re going to continue to send foreign terrorist aliens to El Salvador, as well as to many other countries,” he added.
His statement came ahead of President Donald Trump’s Oval Office meeting with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele later in the morning.
Reporters also asked Miller about deported El Salvadoran Kilmar Abrego Garcia, whose pro-migration lawyers argue was illegally deported.
“Is the president asking President Bukele today to send Mr. Abrego Garcia back to the U.S.?” one reporter asked Miller.
He emphasized that Abrego Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen, and it is up to the Salvadoran government to decide his fate:
To be very clear about this, the Supreme Court ruled that the district court cannot, obviously, compel us to conduct diplomacy or foreign policy with another nation. So they overturned the district court order, and they said very clearly that the district court–it was actually a unanimous ruling–overreached in that ruling. I’m not going to reveal any head of state conversations or conversations at the State Department or the lower level. But the important point that we all agree on is that he’s an El Salvadorian. That is his country of nativity and citizenship. He’s an illegal alien in the United States. He has no lawful right to be here. He was issued a final order of removal from this country, and so it’s up to El Salvador, and to the government and the people of El Salvador, what the fate of their own citizens is. We can’t extradite citizens of foreign countries to our country over the objection of those countries. Obviously, to do that would be a monstrous violation of international law.
Miller’s comments regarding Abrego Garcia echo the sentiments Department of Justice officials laid out in a filing on Sunday to a federal court in Maryland in response to a lawsuit brought by Abrego Garcia.
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