Over 200 migrants who have been despatched to El Salvador’s CECOT mega-prison underneath accusations that they have been members of a violent legal gang are the duty of the US, the federal government of El Salvador informed a United Nations working group.
El Salvador’s claims, outlined in a report submitted Monday in court docket, seem to contradict what President Donald Trump and administration officers have been saying for months: that they’re unable to return any of the migrants despatched to CECOT as a result of they’re underneath El Salvador’s authority.
“On this context, the jurisdiction and obligation for these individuals lie solely with the competent overseas authorities, by advantage of worldwide agreements signed and in accordance with the rules of sovereignty and worldwide cooperation in legal issues,” El Salvador officers mentioned of their report back to the U.N.
El Salvador’s feedback have been made in a report submitted in a court docket submitting by the United Nations Workplace of The Excessive Commissioner for Human Rights Working Group, which was investigating the “disappearances” of 4 Venezuelan males who have been thought to have been despatched to the nation in March.
Thus far, the Trump administration has not launched an inventory of these despatched to El Salvador.
“The Salvadoran State emphatically states that its authorities haven’t arrested, detained, or transferred the individuals referred to within the communications of the Working Group, ” the El Salvador officers mentioned within the report. “The actions of the State of El Salvador have been restricted to the implementation of a bilateral cooperation mechanism with one other State, by means of which it has facilitated using the Salvadoran jail infrastructure for the custody of individuals detained throughout the scope of the justice system and regulation enforcement of that different State.”
The Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act — an 18th century wartime authority used to take away noncitizens with little-to-no due course of — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid legal state” that’s invading the US.
Salvadoran cops escort alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua lately deported by the U.S. authorities to be imprisoned within the Terrorism Confinement Middle jail, in San Luis Talpa, El Salvador, obtained Mar. 16, 2025.
Secretaria de Prensa de la Presidencia through Reuters
The migrants have been despatched to CECOT as a part of a $6 million deal the Trump administration made with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele for El Salvador to accommodate migrant detainees as a part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Attorneys for the ACLU who’re representing the unique case difficult the AEA removals — filed in March as the boys have been en path to CECOT — mentioned they grew to become conscious of the doc final week by means of one of many households of the boys.
The attorneys accuse the federal government of withholding the data regardless of earlier requests the ACLU made for paperwork associated to the administration’s association with El Salvador.
“The federal government of El Salvador has confirmed what everybody already knew: the US controls the destiny of the Venezuelans despatched to CECOT with out due course of,” Lee Gelernt, an legal professional for the ACLU informed ABC Information in response to the U.N. report. “Unbelievably, the U.S. authorities did not present this info to us or the court docket.”
ABC Information has reached out to the Division of Homeland Safety for remark.
