Trump says he could bring back Ábgego García but won't

Protesters denounce deportation of Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Abrego Garcia

Protesters denounce deportation of Salvadoran migrant Kilmar Ábgego García

(Image credit: Michael M. Santiago / Getty Images)

published 30 April 2025

What happened

President Donald Trump marked his 100th day in office Tuesday with a campaign-style rally in Michigan where he defended his increasingly unpopular economic policies and celebrated his hard-line immigration crackdown. In an interview with ABC News broadcast last night, Trump said he could bring wrongly deported migrant Kilmar Ábrego García back from El Salvador but would not, despite a Supreme Court order to "facilitate" his return.

"I could" bring Ábrego García home with one phone call, "and if he were the gentleman that you say he is, I would do that," Trump told ABC's Terry Moran. "But he's not" and "I'm not the one making this decision. We have lawyers that don't want to do this." Trump's comments "not only undermined previous statements by his top aides" that Ábrego García was out of his reach, The New York Times said, but they were also a "blunt sign of his administration's intention to double down and defy the courts."

Moran said the case was "about the rule of law" and due process, noting that "the order from the Supreme Court stands." Trump asserted that Ábrego García was a member of the gang MS-13, pointing to images of tattoos on his fingers that his administration claims are code for "MS-13." The president repeatedly insisted that the tattoos literally spell out MS-13 and berated Moran for pointing out, correctly, that the gang name was added with "Photoshop." Ábrego García has "MS-13 on his knuckles" as "clear as you can be. Not 'interpreted,'" Trump said. "This is why people no longer believe the news, because it's fake news."

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Trump "gets higher marks on his performance on immigration than on any other issue" in a new Reuters/Ipsos poll, with 45% of respondents approving of his handling and 48% disapproving, Reuters said. "Democrats and civil rights advocates have criticized Trump's heightened enforcement tactics, including the cases of several children who are U.S. citizens who were recently deported with their parents."

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Rafi Schwartz has worked as a politics writer at The Week since 2022, where he covers elections, Congress and the White House. He was previously a contributing writer with Mic focusing largely on politics, a senior writer with Splinter News, a staff writer for Fusion's news lab, and the managing editor of Heeb Magazine, a Jewish life and culture publication. Rafi's work has appeared in Rolling Stone, GOOD and The Forward, among others.