President Donald Trump and El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele led a united defense in the Oval Office on Monday as they defended keeping a Maryland man in a notorious megaprison after the Supreme Court ordered his return to the U.S.

Bukele argued he couldn’t return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a 29-year-old father of three who was mistakenly deported along with dozens of other migrants on March 15, to America.

Trump and his lieutenants doubled down on their decision, calling Garcia an ‘illegal alien’ and gang member who was rightfully kicked out of the country.

Backing the presidents up was Stephen Miller, Trump’s deputy chief of staff who has waged a personal war against illegal migrants.

Even members of the Cabinet jumped in to make the case against Garcia.

As journalists questioned Garcia’s incarceration, Miller held court, standing behind a sofa in the Oval Office as the two presidents, Vice President J.D. Vance and a slew of cabinet officials sat in silence, listening to him.

‘So with respect to you,’ Miller snapped, ‘[Garcia’s] a citizen of El Salvador. So it’s very arrogant, even for American media to suggest that we would even tell El Salvador how to handle their own citizens.’

Miller accused Garcia of being a member of MS-13, which Trump has declared a foreign terrorist organization. 

Garcia had denied being a member of the gang. He has no criminal record in the U.S. 

But Miller argued Garcia’s membership ‘meant that he was no longer eligible under federal law … for any form of immigration relief in the United States, so he had a deportation order that was valid, which meant that under our law, he’s not even allowed to be present in the United States, and had to be returned because of the foreign terrorist designation.’

The Supreme Court ordered the White House to find a way to return Garcia to the United States. 

But El Salvador’s president said he could be of no help.

‘How can I return him to the United States?,’ Bukele said. ‘I smuggle him into the United States or what do I do? Of course, I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous. How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States? I don’t have the power to return him to the United States.’ 

Trump supported Bukele’s claim and went further, lobbying the El Salvadorian leader to take more migrants and build more prisons hold them.

‘I just asked the president, you know, it’s this massive complex that he built, a jail complex. I said, ‘Can you build some more of them, please?” Trump said.

He asked Bukele to take ‘as many as we can get out of our country that were allowed in here by incompetent Joe Biden, through open borders — open borders.’ 

The president said he wants to deport ‘as many as possible’ to El Salvador.

Bukele, who calls himself the world’s ‘coolest dictator,’ reassured Trump that he is ‘eager to help.’ 

Trump expressed his gratitude.  

‘You are helping us out, and we appreciate it,’ he said.

The two presidents have bonded and get along well. Earlier this year, they struck a deal where El Salvador to accept more than 200 Venezuelans deported from the United States since Trump’s inauguration in January. 

But Garcia’s case has captured national attention and highlighted the administration’s efforts to remove illegal migrants from the country using the Alien Enemies Act.

The battle is now being fought out in the courts. 

The Trump administration is fighting hard against the Supreme Court’s order to find a way to have Garcia returned to American soil.

The Justice Department, in its latest filing, argued the courts lack the ability to dictate steps that the White House should take in the matter. 

Attorney General Pam Bondi, who joined Trump and Bukele in their Oval Office meeting, said the decision was in El Salvador’s hands. 

‘That’s up to El Salvador if they want to return him. That’s not up to us,’ Bondi said. ‘The Supreme Court rul, President, that if El Salvador wants to return him … we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.’ 

Garcia remains at the CECOT prison in El Salvador as the legal back-and-forth plays out.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who was also in the Oval Office, backed Bondi, saying the administration was not bound to follow court orders.

‘No court in the United States has a right to conduct the foreign policy of the United States,’ he said.

‘I don’t understand what the confusion is,’ Rubio added. ‘This individual is a citizen of El Salvador. He was illegally in the United States and was returned to his country.’

Earlier Monday, Miller claimed Garcia was legally removed from the United States. 

‘No one was mistakenly sent anywhere,’ he told reporters at the White House ahead of Bukele’s arrival. ‘The only mistake that was made is a lawyer put an incorrect line in a legal filing that’s since been relieved of doing it.’

Miller also argued Garcia is an ‘illegal alien.’  

‘He is El Salvador. He is an illegal alien. He was deported to El Salvador,’ he said. ‘I would welcome anyone here to tell me what country they think we should be sending El Salvador illegal aliens to.’

Garcia is a Salvadoran citizen who has lived in Maryland for almost 15 years. While he initially entered the U.S. illegally, a federal judge in 2019 granted him protection from being deported, due to concerns for his safety if he were to return to El Salvador. 

The Trump administration has held firm about Garcia’s deportation, insisting it was legal and he was a criminal.

Last week a Justice Department attorney described Garcia’s deportation as a mistake, or an ‘administrative error.’ That lawyer was later placed on administrative leave.

In addition to defending the Garcia case, both Trump and Miller indicated there are many more deportations to come.

‘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 counties,’ Miller said.

And when asked about a report the administration wanted to deport a million people, Miller responded: ‘More than that.’

And Trump indicated he was open to sending Americans convicted of violent crimes to the notorious El Salvadorian prison, which is heavily overcrowded and faces allegations of human rights abuse.

‘I’m all for it,’ Trump said, adding that the attorney general was studying the idea.

‘If it’s a homegrown criminal, I have no problem, no,’ he said, adding: ‘I’m talking about really bad people.’

Before the formal sitdown in the Oval Office began, El Salvadoran television captured Trump giving Bukele a tour of the room and asking him to build five more prisons.

‘Home-growns are next. The home-growns. You gotta build about five more places. It’s not big enough,’ Trump told him.