CNN legal analyst tells panelist deported MS-13 member isn’t ‘coming back’

CNN legal analyst Jeffrey Toobin told a former federal judge Monday that an MS-13 gang member deported to El Salvador would not be “coming back” to the United States during an appearance on “Anderson Cooper 360.”

United States District Judge Paula Xinis of the District of Maryland ordered the Trump administration to return Abrego Garcia, to the United States on April 4. Toobin said that while the Supreme Court said the U.S. should “facilitate” Garcia’s return, Garcia’s return depended on whether El Salvador would agree to release him.

“I think they’re very, very cautious and they don’t want a confrontation with the president. That’s why the language is so cautious. But I think they want him returned,” former United States District Judge Shira Scheindlin of the Southern District of New York said.

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“Well, but I also think they do not want an international confrontation that they cause. And they will be very deferential if El Salvador says, ‘We are simply not turning him over,’” Toobin responded. “I bet this Supreme Court will say, well, there’s nothing that can be done in that case.”

El Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele rejected the notion that Garcia would be returned to the United States when questioned by the press during a Monday Oval Office meeting with President Donald Trump.

“I suppose you’re suggesting that I smuggle a terrorist into the United States,” Bukele told CNN host Kaitlan Collins. “How can I smuggle, how can I return him to the United States, like I smuggle him into the United States? Of course, I’m not going to do it. I mean, 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. We’re not very fond of releasing terrorists into our country.”

Upon taking office on Jan. 20, Trump issued several executive orders to address illegal immigration, including designating Mexican drug cartels, the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) and the El Salvadoran prison gang MS-13 as foreign terrorist organizations.

“You don’t think this man is coming back?” CNN host John Berman asked.

“I don’t think he’s coming back, basically ever,” Toobin responded.

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