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A federal judge on Monday gave the Trump administration two weeks to submit a plan to either return a group of Venezuelan men previously held at a notorious Salvadoran prison to the U.S., or give them a hearing to contest allegations of gang membership.
U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg issued the order after finding that 137 Venezuelan men deported to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and held at the infamous CECOT megaprison had been denied their due process rights. Boasberg determined that the men were in the legal custody of the U.S. during the months they spent detained at CECOT, and that they should’ve been given a chance to challenge the Trump administration’s allegations that they were gang members.
“On the merits, the Court concludes that this class was denied their due-process rights and will thus require the Government to facilitate their ability to obtain such hearing. Our law requires no less,” Boasberg wrote in his opinion Monday.
The group of 137 men who could benefit from the ruling is a subset of more than 200 Venezuelan deportees sent to CECOT in March, some of whom were deported to El Salvador under traditional immigration procedures. All of the Venezuelan men held at CECOT were released this summer and returned to Venezuela as part of a U.S.-brokered prisoner swap.
Boasberg said the U.S. government could comply with his order by allowing the men to return to the U.S. or otherwise offering them a hearing. The administration, he wrote, could “theoretically offer Plaintiffs a hearing without returning them to the United States so long as such hearing satisfied the requirements of due process.”
Boasberg gave the government until Jan. 5 to file a plan to comply with his order.
In a statement Tuesday, Department of Homeland Security spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said “Judge Boasberg is way over his skis.”
“He has been shut down by appellate courts again and again on this case,” she added. “We look forward to continuing to defend our actions in court.”
The Trump administration has argued that the men ceased to be in U.S. custody after they were sent to El Salvador, so U.S. courts do not have jurisdiction to hear legal claims challenging their detention. But Boasberg wrote that the U.S. effectively maintained control over the men because El Salvador held them in prison at the U.S.’s behest, and the administration paid for them to be detained at CECOT.
The first group of Venezuelan men sent to CECOT were deported on March 15, soon after President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act and declared alleged members of Venezuela’s Tren de Aragua gang enemies of the state who could be detained and deported with little to no due process.
At the time, Trump administration officials called the deportees dangerous criminals, terrorists and gangsters.
CBS News was first to obtain and publish the list of the Venezuelan men sent to CECOT on March 15. Using that list, “60 Minutes” and CBS News found that many of the deportees did not have any apparent criminal record, in the U.S. or abroad, despite the administration’s allegations.
A report released last month by human rights groups determined that the treatment of the Venezuelan deportees imprisoned at CECOT amounted to arbitrary detention and enforced disappearance under international law.
The investigation, by the groups Human Rights Watch and Cristosal, found the detainees were victims of “constant beatings” by Salvadoran guards at the notorious maximum security prison, as well as other forms of mistreatment, including cases of sexual abuse.
Lee Gelernt, the American Civil Liberties Union lawyer representing the former CECOT prisoners in court, lauded Monday’s order.
“After enduring months of torture, these men will finally get the due process they deserve, notwithstanding the Trump administration’s underhanded attempts to deny them any opportunity to content the accusations that they are gang members,” he said.
