El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said in the Oval Office Monday he would not return Kilmar Abrego Garcia — a Maryland man illegally deported to El Salvador — to the United States, as Trump administration officials vehemently argued they were in no position to force the decision.

“How can I return him to the United States? Am I going to smuggle him? Of course I’m not going to do it,” Bukele said while sitting beside President Donald Trump. “The question is preposterous.”

Attorney General Pam Bondi, sitting near Trump, said it is up to El Salvador to decide if they want to return him. “That’s not up to us,” she said. “If they wanted to return him, we would facilitate it, meaning provide a plane.”