Migrants deported to El Salvador prison remain under U.S. control, Salvadoran officials tell United Nations investigators
Washington – The government of El Salvador has recognized the United Nations investigators that the Trump administration maintains control of Venezuelan men who have been expelled from the United States to a Salvadoral notorious prison, contradicting the public statements of officials from the two countries.
The revelation was contained in court documents on Monday by lawyers for more than 100 migrants who seek to challenge their deportations to the mega-prison of El Salvador known as the center of confinement of terrorism, or Cecot.
The case is among several repression of immigration by President Donald Trump.
“In this context, the jurisdiction and legal responsibility of these persons reside exclusively with the competent foreign authorities,” wrote Salvadoral officials in response to questions from the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights Unit. The United Nations group examined the fate of the men who were sent to Salvador in the United States in mid-March, even after a US judge ordered that the planes that transported them.
The Trump administration has argued that it is helpless to return men, noting that they are out of reach of American courts and no longer have access to rights to regular procedure or other American constitutional guarantees.
But migrant lawyers said that the UN report shows the opposite.
“El Salvador confirmed what we and all the others understood: it is the United States which controls what happens to the Venezuelans languishing in Cecot. Remarkably, the American government did not provide us with this information to us or to the Court,” said the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer.
Skye Perryman, CEO and president of Democracy Forward, said that the documents show “that the administration was not honest with the American court or the people.” Aclu and forward democracy both represent migrants.
A spokesman for the Ministry of Justice refused to comment. Officials from the White House and Home House department immediately responded to requests for comments.
In March, the administration agreed to pay $ 6 million for Salvador to accommodate 300 migrants. The agreement sparked immediate controversy when Trump invoked a 18th century war law, the law on extraterrestrial enemies, to quickly withdraw the men whom he accused of being members of the Venezuelan gang Tren of Aragua.
In a related case, the administration wrongly sent Kilmar Abrego Garcia to the same prison, despite the ordinance of a judge prohibiting the Maryland man from being sent to Salvador.
The administration initially resisted the judicial orders to bring him back to the United States, saying that he was no longer in police custody. Finally, Abrego Garcia was sent back to the United States, where he is now faced with criminal charges of human smuggling while legal battles continue.
Last month, a coalition of immigrant rights groups continued to invalidate the prison agreement with El Salvador, arguing that the agreement aimed at moving the prisoners of migrants outside the scope of American courts violates the Constitution.
