Hundreds of immigrants, accused of having ties to gangs and criminal histories, have been deported to El Salvador by the Trump administration and imprisoned there. However, aside from citing tattoos and social media posts, the administration has provided no real evidence.
Some have criticized the administration for failing to provide due process to these immigrants, who were flown to El Salvador without a hearing or proof of the government’s claims.
One of the most notable cases is a father from Maryland, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia. The Salvadoran immigrant was deported due to what White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt admitted was “an administrative error. The administration maintains the position that this individual, who was deported to El Salvador and will not be returning to our country, was a member of the brutal and vicious MS-13 gang.”
The government says there is nothing they can do to retrieve Abrego Garcia, as he is now in the custody of El Salvador. His lawyer argued that the United States normally attempts to bring people back after wrongful deportation.
Abrego Garcia has not been convicted of a crime in the U.S. or any other country. In 2019, an immigration judge granted him a “withholding of removal,” which prevented his deportation to El Salvador. This case has gained national attention, especially after Senator Cory Booker mentioned it during his marathon Senate floor speech this week.
“No one should be denied due process...the government can’t walk up to a human being and grab them off the street and put them on a plane and send them to one of the most notorious prisons in the world and just say, as one of our authorities did, ‘oopsy’,” Booker said.
Another similar case involved a Venezuelan makeup artist known as Andry, whose lawyer claims he was a legal asylum seeker when he was deported. He is not the only Venezuelan who was sent to El Salvador, despite their status as asylum seekers with pending hearings in the U.S.
To accomplish his deportation goals, Trump has been utilizing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allowed for the incarceration of Japanese-Americans in concentration camps during World War II. The Trump administration aims to speed up the removal of alleged Venezuelan gang members, with the order allowing the administration to deport anyone without regular immigration proceedings.
Earlier this month, a federal judge ordered the administration to turn around two planes of deportees bound for El Salvador, but the flights proceeded.
The U.S. has made a deal with the president of El Salvador to house immigrants in a mega-prison there in exchange for 6 million dollars.
Venezuela’s government has decried the Trump administration’s action, comparing it to “the darkest episodes in human history.” Videos of the deportees imprisoned in El Salvador show them walking with their wrists cuffed behind their backs, their ankles shackled, and guards forcing them to walk with their heads down. One man even appears to vomit.
The Venezuelan government has hired lawyers to represent the Venezuelans deported from the U.S. and jailed. They are asking El Salvador to verify that their clients are being held, however, neither Venezuela nor El Salvador has released a list of those imprisoned.