US secretary of state hailed alliance between Trump and El Salvador's President Nayib Bukele a day before Bukele's White House visit
The US has deported another 10 people that it alleges are gang members to El Salvador, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Sunday, a day before that country's president is expected to visit the White House.
"Last night, another 10 criminals from the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua Foreign Terrorist Organizations arrived in El Salvador," Rubio wrote in a social media post.
The alliance between US President Donald Trump and El Salvador President Nayib Bukele "has become an example for security and prosperity in our hemisphere", Rubio added.
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Trump is expected to meet Bukele at the White House on Monday.
Trump said on Saturday he was looking forward to meeting Bukele and praised him for taking "enemy aliens" from the United States. He said the two countries were working closely to "eradicate terrorist organisations".
Administration officials have repeatedly made public statements alleging that detained immigrants are gang members that they have not backed up in court.
The Trump administration has deported hundreds of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
Lawyers and relatives of the migrants held in El Salvador say they are not gang members and had no opportunity to contest the US government assertion that they were.
The Trump administration says it vetted migrants to ensure they belonged to Tren de Aragua, which it labels a terrorist organisation.
The deportations have been challenged in federal court. The US Supreme Court said the US government must give sufficient notice to immigrant detainees to allow them to contest their deportations.
It did not say how those already in El Salvador could seek judicial review of their removals.
Meanwhile, the US government is doubling down on its decision not to tell a federal court whether it has any plans to repatriate a Maryland man who was mistakenly deported last month and remains confined in a notorious El Salvador prison, despite a Supreme Court ruling and lower court order that the man should be returned to the US.
The US District Court judge handling the case of Kilmar Abrego Garcia now is considering whether to grant a request from the man's legal team to compel the government to explain why it should not be held in contempt. Any move towards a contempt finding would represent an extraordinary turn in the US government's assertion of presidential authority, both generally and specifically over immigration policy.
The government's latest daily status update, filed on Sunday as required by Judge Paula Xinis, states essentially that the Trump administration has nothing to add beyond its Saturday statement that, for the first time, confirmed that Abrego Garcia, 29, was alive and remained in an El Salvador prison.
That means for the second consecutive day, the administration has not addressed Xinis' demands that the administration detail what steps it was taking to return Abrego Garcia to the US.
The US Supreme Court ruled on Thursday that the Trump administration must bring him back. Xinis followed that with an order on Friday requiring the administration to disclose Abrego Garcia's "current physical location and custodial status" and "what steps, if any, Defendants have taken [and] will take, and when, to facilitate" his return.
The US government has asserted that Abrego Garcia, who lived in the US for about 14 years before being deported, is a member of the MS-13 gang. Abrego Garcia has disputed that claim, and he has never been charged with any crime related to such activity. The government has called his deportation a mistake but also has argued, essentially, that its conclusion about Abrego Garcia's affiliation makes him ineligible for protection from the courts.
Abrego Garcia's location was first confirmed to the court by Michael G Kozak, who identified himself in the Saturday filing as a "Senior Bureau Official" in the State Department's Bureau of Western Hemisphere Affairs. Sunday's status update was signed by Evan C Katz, who was identified in the filing as assistant director of Enforcement and Removal Operations for the US Immigration and Customs Enforcement agency within the Department of Homeland Security.
Separately, Abrego Garcia's lawyers have asked Xinis to issue an order forcing the government to explain to the court why it should not be held in contempt for failing to comply fully with previous orders. As of early Sunday evening, Xinis had not filed such an order.
Abrego Garcia's lawyers also have asked Xinis to order the government, among other things, to produce documents and contracts that detail the US agreement with El Salvador to house people deported from the US or, in absence of such records, to require that government officials testify in court about the arrangement.
Xinis expressed frustration on Friday during a hearing in her Maryland courtroom when a US government lawyer struggled to provide any information about Abrego Garcia's whereabouts.
"Where is he and under whose authority?" the judge asked during the hearing. "I'm not asking for state secrets. All I know is that he's not here. The government was prohibited from sending him to El Salvador and now I'm asking a very simple question: Where is he?"
A deputy assistant attorney general told Xinis that he had no knowledge about any actions or plans to return Abrego Garcia. But he told the judge the government was "actively considering what could be done".
In a statement a day later, Kozak said: "It is my understanding ... that Abrego Garcia is currently being held in the Terrorism Confinement Centre in El Salvador."
The Justice Department has not responded to a request for comment.
During his time in the US, Abrego Garcia worked in construction, was married and raising three children with disabilities, according to court records.
A US immigration judge initially shielded Abrego Garcia from deportation because he was likely to face persecution in to El Salvador by local gangs that terrorised his family. The US deported him there last month anyway, before describing the mistake as "an administrative error" but standing by its claims that he was in MS-13.
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