Venezuelans Trump deported facing "significant harm" in prison, judge says
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Alleged Venezuelan gang members at an El Salvadoran prison facility on March 16. Photo: El Salvador Presidency/Handout/Anadolu via Getty Images
The alleged Venezuelan gang members deported by the Trump administration earlier this month are likely to suffer "significant harm" in El Salvador, a federal judge asserted Monday.
Why it matters: The Trump administration's decision to deport the alleged gang members in defiance of a court order has set up a high-stakes legal battle that could test the limits of President Trump's power.
- Department of Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem said during a cabinet meeting Monday that she intends to visit El Salvador's CECOT mega-prison during an upcoming trip to Latin America.
State of play: U.S. District Judge James Boasberg rejected the Trump administration's request to lift the temporary halt on the deportations.
- Boasberg wrote in an opinion that the plaintiffs deserved individualized hearings to determine whether they were part of the Tren de Aragua gang as the administration claimed and whether the Alien Enemies Act of 1789 — which Trump invoked to justify their deportation — could be applied to them.
- Boasberg also wrote that the plaintiffs "readily meet" the criteria establishing they face "irreparable harm" by their removal to El Salvadoran prisons.
The big picture: In Salvadoran prisons, detainees often face life-threatening harm, Boasberg noted.
- Inmates in these prisons have provided declarations of having no access to regular food and drinking water, rarely being allowed to leave their cells. They also have said they do not see daylight for days at a time, and sleep upright due to overcrowding, he added.
- The Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT), where plaintiffs were transferred upon landing in El Salvador, has such poor sanitary conditions that diseases like tuberculosis and scabies, among others, are common.
Zoom in: "Salvadoran inmates are, according to evidence presented, often disciplined through beatings and humiliation," Boasberg wrote.
- One inmate has testified to being forced to kneel naked on the ground for hours, before being forced "to sit in a barrel of ice water as guards questioned him and then forced his head under water so he could not breathe," he added.
The bottom line: While the Trump administration suffers some harm when its deportation orders are blocked, "such harms do not outweigh Plaintiffs' need for preliminary relief," Boasberg wrote.
Go deeper: Trump moves closer to court crisis
