President Trump and his deputies are digging in on their refusal to heed a Supreme Court order to “facilitate” the release of a Maryland man who was deported to El Salvador last month despite another court order expressly forbidding him to be sent there.

The administration has shifted from admitting in court filings that the man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, was deported because of an “administrative error,” to insisting that officials were right to send him and other migrants to a prison in El Salvador called CECOT, where detainees are cut off from the outside world and cannot meet with lawyers. Mr. Abrego Garcia has since been transferred to a different facility.

The president’s deputies have repeatedly accused Mr. Abrego Garcia of being a member of the MS-13 gang, which they have designated as a terrorist organization. On Friday, Mr. Trump held up a photo of Mr. Abrego Garcia’s tattooed hand in the Oval Office, arguing that the markings indicated he was a member of that gang.

The sentiment has been echoed by President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador, who visited Washington last week and said he would not return Mr. Abrego Garcia to the United States.

The Justice Department has argued that it can take a passive approach to the Supreme Court’s demand that the administration “facilitate” Mr. Abrego Garcia’s release, doing little more than letting him into the United States if he manages to present himself to a port of entry.

President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador met with President Trump at the White House and said he would not return Mr. Abrego Garcia.Credit…Eric Lee/The New York Times

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