President Donald Trump on Monday welcomed to the White House El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, a populist ally whose cooperation has aided the Trump administration’s plan to deport illegal immigrants. The media-savvy Bukele gushed praise for Trump’s border lockdown and made news for conveniently refusing to cooperate on the one point that actually benefits the Trump administration.

Bukele told reporters he would not return Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia to the U.S., as federal courts have ordered. “How can I return him to the United States? Like if I smuggle him into the United States — of course I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.”

Garcia is an alleged MS-13 gang leader who was living in the U.S. illegally, but the U.S. Justice Department admitted that his deportation to El Salvador was done in error. In 2019, a federal judge had ruled that Garcia could not be deported to El Salvador on the grounds that he faced a threat of violence from other gangs, although he might still be deported to other countries. On March 15, U.S. officials loaded Garcia, along with legally deported members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Araguas, on a flight headed for El Salvador’s maximum-security prison, Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT).

“The United States acknowledges that Abrego Garcia was subject to a withholding order forbidding his removal to El Salvador, and that the removal to El Salvador was therefore illegal,” the Supreme Court found unanimously in a brief April 10 order (Noem v. Garcia) affirming that the government should “facilitate” and “effectuate” Garcia’s return to the U.S. However, the court ordered the district to clarify “the intended scope of the term ‘effectuate’ … with due regard for the deference owed to the Executive Branch in the conduct of foreign affairs.”

While arguing that “Abrego Garcia is deportable, and should be deported,” the National Review editors reason that the administration ignored due process in his case, “an obvious injustice that could be easily remedied by bringing Abrego Garcia back,” to deport him the right way.

Trump administration figures have largely retreated to the argument that they lack the authority to bring Garcia back to the U.S. since he is now in Salvadoran custody, and that any international negotiations to secure his return fall into the realm of foreign policy, over which the president has broad discretion.

This has the potential to set a dangerous precedent of the government ignoring the law, denying due process, and whisking disfavored persons out of the country to claim that U.S. courts lack the jurisdiction to review their actions.

“The administration maintains that this [bringing Garcia back] is impossible because it sent him to a foreign jail run by the government of El Salvador, not the United States,” write the National Review editors. But, they judge, “This is a ridiculous pretense because the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, will clearly do anything we ask.”

Earlier this year, Bukele agreed to accept not only Salvadoran citizens deported from the U.S., but deportees of any nationality, including American, to be housed in the CECOT prison. In other words, El Salvador agreed to imprison — that is, feed, clothe, and house — criminals from other nations.

If the government sets a precedent of deporting alleged criminals to a foreign prison without due process, and the government has an agreement whereby it can ship American citizens to the same foreign prison, does that mean that the government may soon violate the due process rights afforded to American citizens by shipping them overseas?

It would be one thing if the U.S. transferred a prisoner to another nation where he would be guaranteed similar civil rights and due process. But Bukele has ruled El Salvador under martial law since 2022, claiming the power to arrest people without warrants, deny them access to a lawyer, and broadly intercept communications.

These powers did enable Bukele to effectively shut down El Salvador’s criminal gangs. El Salvador’s homicide rate fell from over 2,000 in 2019 to 114 in 2024, and business activity has increased because they no longer have to pay protection money. For this reason, Bukele remains wildly popular among Salvadorans, enjoying an approval rating above 80% and cruising to reelection in 2024.

But just because Bukele’s actions are popular does not mean they closely adhere to the rule of law or respect long-established principles of freedom. In February 2020, Bukele marched into El Salvador’s Legislative Assembly, backed by armed soldiers, to secure a favorable vote on a security loan. In April 2020, he vowed to ignore a court ruling against his COVID-19 stay-at-home order — before later packing the court. His demagoguery veers dangerously close to dictatorship; it is not a model the U.S. should seek to emulate.

Trump and Bukele clearly admire one another, at least in public, and they took the opportunity on Monday to “showcase their historic partnership to make the world a safer place,” the White House announced. “Thanks to the two leaders, scores of violent illegal immigrant killers, rapists, gang members, and other sick criminals have been swiftly taken off our streets.”

Taking violent criminals off the streets is a good thing. But due process exists to ensure that the ones being taken off the streets are, in fact, violent criminals. It’s great to see the Trump administration cracking down on criminal gangs, deporting illegal immigrants, and getting our hemispheric neighbors to play their part. But because we want America to be great, we must keep our standards high and expect the Trump administration to follow the law, lest our government begin to emulate the political culture of a banana republic.