The Government of the United States reached an agreement with the President of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, to send detained migrants in the U.S. to that country. The migrants who will be transferred to El Salvador have no criminal records in U.S. territory. As part of the deal, the specific details of which have not been revealed, Washington will pay El Salvador 6 million dollars annually to maintain the prison system.
In total, more than 200 migrants, mostly Venezuelans, have been sent to the CECOT prison in El Salvador, a prison known for allegations of human rights abuses. These migrants have been accused of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang. However, according to an analysis published by the Bloomberg portal, at least 90% of the men sent to this prison are not related to this criminal gang.
The Trump administration filed a petition with the U.S. Supreme Court requesting to lift the temporary ban on the expulsions of Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador. The request comes after a petition from the ACLU organization to stop the expulsions, claiming that adequate time was not being provided for migrants to defend their cases.
President Trump justified the expulsions by invoking a law from 1789, the Foreign Enemies Act, accusing the migrants of belonging to a terrorist criminal gang. This measure has generated criticism and is considered a constitutional crisis. The government claims that it has informed the migrants about their transfer in advance and has committed not to expel them under the mentioned law.
In court documents, the ACLU reported that several Venezuelan migrants detained in Texas were notified of their expulsion using a document written in English, despite many of them only speaking Spanish. The U.S. government has confirmed the delivery of this type of notification to the detainees.
