Federal judge orders return of Venezuelan migrants deported to El Salvador under Alien Enemies Act : NPR
James Boasberg shown here on Monday March 13, 2023.
Valérie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images
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Valérie Plesch/Bloomberg via Getty Images
A federal judge ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of a group of Venezuelan migrants to the United States who were sent to a maximum security prison in El Salvador last yearr under the Foreign Enemies Act and accused of being a member of the Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua.
The 137 Venezuelans to whom the ruling applies were deported to the notorious Terrorism Containment Center, or CECOT, in the Central American country, by the rarely used name. Alien Enemies Act, despite an emergency decision ordering the flight’s return to the United States.
The men were then sent to their home country as part of a prisoner exchange. U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg ruled that the government must pay to return or accept at a U.S. port of entry all the men who are currently in countries other than Venezuela. They will likely be arrested upon arrival as they fight accusations that they are members of the Tren de Aragua. Those still in Venezuela can contest their expulsion from that country and will not be allowed to come to the United States at this time.
Boasberg decided late last year that the men was denied due processand it gave the U.S. government the opportunity to “propose measures” that would ensure that the men had hearings on their habeas corpus petitions and challenged their designation under the Alien Enemies Act.
” Apparently uninterested in participating in this process, the government
the responses essentially told the Court to pound sand,” Boasberg wrote in Thursday’s decision. “Recognizing the egregious nature of the Government’s violations of the due process rights of deportees that have placed Plaintiffs in this situation, the Court refuses to let them languish in the unresolved quagmire proposed by Defendants.”
It’s unclear how many of these men will want to pursue their habeas petitions, or how many of them are still in Venezuela, Boasberg said.
In a statement to NPR, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin doubled down on the government’s accusations that the men were terrorists. She said they had been “removed by the relevant legal authorities.”
“This case is no longer about the facts or the law, but about Judge Boasberg’s crusade to stop President Trump from carrying out the will of the American people,” McLaughlin said.
The Trump administration constantly clashed with Boasberg on his decisions. Asset demanded the dismissal of Boasberg A ruling last year that prompted U.S. Supreme Court Chief Justice John Roberts to issue a rare statement saying impeachment was not appropriate over judicial disagreements.
Lee Gelernt, an ACLU attorney representing the men, told NPR in a statement today: “The Trump administration sent these men to a brutal torture prison and did so without due process…the Court had no choice but to order that the men now receive their constitutional right to defend themselves.”
Boasberg ordered the plaintiffs to submit within 15 days a list of people wishing to return to the United States.
