US court orders Trump to provide deported migrants due process News
Casa Presidencial , El Salvador, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons
US court orders Trump to provide deported migrants due process

A US federal judge on Monday ordered the Trump administration to provide due process to Venezuelan migrants who have been removed from the US and flown to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador.

Judge James Boasberg of the District Court for the District of Columbia concluded that President Donald Trump’s administration’s deportation of 137 Venezuelan migrants to the anti-terrorism prison in March was illegal. The order requires the administration to provide due process either by bringing deportees back to the US or offering it abroad. Boasberg gave the administration two weeks to come up with a plan.

The order acknowledged that efforts to provide the deportees with due process are “complicated by their subsequent transfer to and release in their native Venezuela.” The transfer of the detainees from El Salvador to Venezuela took place in July as part of a “prisoner swap” with the US.

Boasberg held that the administration possessed prior knowledge that the migrants could end up at the notorious prison, and inappropriately rushed deportations by labeling migrants as terrorists under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA). Boasberg stated that the hasty removal of these men under the AEA was a way to “evade judicial review.”

The order comes amid the administration’s recent antagonization of Venezuela and its President Nicolás Maduro. On December 16, Trump announced a US blockade of all “sanctioned oil tankers” into Venezuela, putting massive strain on the country’s economy. Trump followed up with a post on social media stating that the Venezuelan regime is a “foreign terrorist organization.”

Speaking of Maduro, Trump has directly warned that “[i]f he wants to do something, if he plays tough, it’ll be the last time he’ll ever be able to play tough.” 

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