Venezuelans' lawyers urge judge to order Trump to facilitate return from El Salvador

By Luc Cohen

Lawyers for a group of at least 137 Venezuelan men sent to a prison in El Salvador last month have urged a judge to order Republican President Donald Trump's administration to facilitate their return to the U.S.

The Thursday night request by lawyers with the American Civil Liberties Union to Washington-based U.S. District Judge James Boasberg opens up a new front in a legal battle over the Trump administration's use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to speed up deportations of alleged members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

So far, the ACLU had been focused on ensuring Venezuelans still in the U.S. were given an adequate opportunity to challenge their deportations under the law in court. Judges in at least five federal courts have issued orders temporarily blocking deportations within their districts using the law, which has historically been used in wartime.

Family members of many of the Venezuelans deported on March 15 and their lawyers deny any gang ties, and say they were not given a chance to contest the Trump administration's allegations in court. They are being held at El Salvador's Terrorism Confinement Center, under an agreement in which the U.S. is paying President Nayib Bukele's government $6 million.

The Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Any order from Boasberg to facilitate the migrants' return would echo another federal judge's order that the administration facilitate the return of Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran migrant wrongly deported to El Salvador alongside the Venezuelan migrants.

The U.S. Supreme Court upheld U.S. District Judge Paula Xinis' order for the government to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return, but so far, the Trump administration has not given any indication it has asked El Salvador's government to send him back.

Xinis began an inquiry into whether the administration defied her order to facilitate Abrego Garcia's return. Xinis said on Wednesday she would put the probe on hold until April 30, without explaining why.

Boasberg has said he may hold Trump administration officials in contempt of court for disobeying his order to return the planes carrying the Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador. An appeals court last week temporarily paused his inquiry.