In a surprising legal move, attorneys representing the Venezuelan government approached El Salvador’s highest court on Monday with a petition to secure the release of 238 Venezuelans. These individuals had been deported from the United States and are currently detained in a highly secured penitentiary in El Salvador.
Jaime Ortega, an attorney for 30 of these Venezuelans, revealed that they lodged a habeas corpus plea with the Constitutional Chamber of the Supreme Court. The plea requests the court to extend its jurisdiction over all Venezuelan detainees in El Salvador, challenging the legality of their detention.
This legal challenge demands that El Salvador’s government provide justification for holding these individuals. The government, however, has maintained silence concerning their status since the deportation took place over a week ago, ignoring a U.S. federal judge’s directive to return the deportees.
The deportation, under the Trump administration’s directive, leveraged an archaic wartime statute, claiming the individuals were affiliates of the Tren de Aragua gang, which had been designated as a hostile entity.
Ortega emphasized their representation for 30 Venezuelans who have empowered them to act but are seeking relief for the entire detained group. Salvador Ríos, Ortega’s colleague, mentioned that they operate under the employment of the Venezuelan government and a Venezuelan immigrant organization. He asserted that the detainees had no ties with the alleged gang and were merely relocating from Venezuela without any criminal records.
An interesting backdrop to this situation is El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele’s offer to then-U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio earlier this year. Bukele pledged to incarcerate U.S. deportees or even American prisoners within El Salvador, noting a financial agreement with the U.S. aimed at reducing costs.
Nonetheless, both Salvadoran and U.S. legal consultants are raising concerns over the legality of transferring migrants, particularly those without convictions or criminal charges, into prisons in another nation.
