By April Ryan

The President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, says he is “not releasing terrorists back to this country,” speaking of Maryland man Kilmar Abrego Garcia deported to an El Salvador prison. Trump officials accuse Garcia of being a member of the MS-13 gang. Bukele also offered he could not return Garcia if the United States didn’t want him. Garcia is from El Salvador, according to White House officials. During that Oval Office press conference, President Trump is also considering deporting American citizens, saying, “a homegrown criminal…I am talking about a violent criminal, evil people.” Bukele answered a reporter’s question after President Trump was pressed about bringing Garcia back to the United States following the United States Supreme Court ruling that Trump officials must facilitate the release of Garcia. Garcia was said to have been wrongfully deported to the El Salvador prison. “In your face” are the words Black leaders like New York Congressman Greg Meeks are uttering about today’s Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump and the president of El Salvador.

Meeks, the Ranking Democratic member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is requesting “transparency” with a “transcript” of the closed-door meeting between the pair amid the controversy over García’s deportation to an El Salvador mega-prison. Over the weekend, the White House told a judge García is “alive” and “secure.” Under the Alien Enemies Act, the Trump administration is allowed to deport people. However, the question is who and why the administration will remove from the United States to the El Salvador prison. There is a “demand that we [congress] have a transparent readout of what was discussed,” requests Meeks. Democrats feel President Trump can’t be trusted as he “lies.” Meeks explains, “because clearly the Supreme Court, as well of the lower court, has ordered him [President Trump] to have and release the individual who was illegally taken to El Salvador.” Meeks believes Trump should be “demanding” that Garcia “be returned to the United States.” Meeks also says, “We have no idea” what deal will be made between the presidents.

This is the first meeting between Trump and a Latin American leader during the second Trump administration. Former Philadelphia Mayor and Columbia University Professor Michael Nutter believes not only is this meeting “in your face” but that “Donald Trump wants fear in this country.” Nutter believes in being tough on crime; however, he questions these extreme tactics. Nutter feels Trump is perpetually campaigning as “it’s all about the strong man show and that he ran on the backs of migrants and immigrants, that works from a PR standpoint well with his base…. this will be government by a campaign.” As many are studying the law, the precedent, and the morality of these deportations to El Salvador, the former Philadelphia mayor says, “This is not good versus evil. This is documented versus undocumented. This is [a] personal grievance.”

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