We speak to Nayna Gupta, policy director at the American Immigration Council, and José Olivares, an award-winning investigative journalist specializing in Latin American politics, about El Salvador's immigrant detention collaboration with the United States. Over 300 people have been disappeared to El Salvador's dangerous maximum-security prisons, including at least one man who was targeted for removal by mistake. U.S. President Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele now say they have no power to bring Kilmar Abrego Garcia back to the United States, despite a Supreme Court order to "facilitate" his return. "What we saw yesterday was political theater and a set of administration officials lying to the American public," says Gupta about Trump and Bukele's meeting Monday in the Oval Office, which was open to the press. "Donald Trump and his administration can absolutely bring home Mr. Abrego Garcia. That is well within their power and authority." Olivares recounts the origins of U.S.-Salvadoran collaboration and the Salvadoran government's own close ties to the MS-13 criminal organization.
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