One week after more than 250 Venezuelan nationals were released to their home country from a mega-prison in El Salvador, a federal judge is holding a hearing Thursday to determine what due process rights the men may be entitled to after they were removed from the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act.
In June, U.S. District Judge James Boasberg ruled that the men, who were then being held in El Salvador’s CECOT facility, were entitled to practice their due process rights to challenge their detentions.
Boasberg had ordered the Trump administration to come up with a plan to allow the men to challenge their detentions from El Salvador by June 11, but a federal appeals court put that deadline on hold.
MORE: Migrants sent to El Salvador’s CECOT returned to Venezuela in prisoner swap, 10 Americans freed: Officials
With the men now in Venezuela, Boasberg scheduled a conference Thursday to determine the next steps in a class-action lawsuit filed by the families of the removed men.
In March the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act — an 18th century wartime authority used to remove noncitizens with little-to-no due process — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to the CECOT mega-prison in El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
An official with the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement acknowledged shortly afterward that “many” of the men deported on March 15 lacked criminal records in the United States — but said that “the lack of specific information about each individual” actually “demonstrates that they are terrorists with regard to whom we lack a complete profile.”
In a filing last week, lawyers for the former detainees argued that they should still be able to practice the due process rights they were deprived of when they were removed from the country with little notice under an authority that multiple judges have ruled is unlawful.
“Plaintiffs respectfully request that this Court request an immediate status update from the government as to whether it is prepared to bring the members of the class back to the United States for habeas proceedings,” they argued.
As part of a series of lawsuits that began in March when Trump issued the proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act, Judge Boabserg has sharply criticized the conduct of the Trump administration and considered holding officials in contempt. In an order last month, Boasberg rebuked the Trump administration for detaining the men on “flimsy, even frivolous, accusations” and failing to provide them with a meaningful opportunity to exercise their rights.
“Defendants instead spirited away plane loads of people before any such challenge could be made. And now, significant evidence has come to light indicating that many of those currently entombed in CECOT have no connection to the gang and thus languish in a foreign prison on flimsy, even frivolous, accusations,” Judge Boasberg wrote.
