Venezuela Challenges El Salvador Migrant Detentions as Trump Suffers Legal Setback

Caracas, March 26, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Nicolás Maduro government has filed a lawsuit in El Salvador in defense of 238 Venezuelan nationals imprisoned in the Central American country following deportation from the United States.

A group of Salvadoran lawyers led by Jaime Ortega filed habeas corpus appeals before the Central American nation’s Supreme Court. The attorneys, hired by Caracas, currently represent 30 of the detainees, but stated that the habeas corpus would apply to all the Venezuelan nationals sent to El Salvador.

“We demand their immediate release, and failing that, an orderly and systematic repatriation process [to Venezuela] as required by our laws,” Ortega told reporters on Monday.

The migrants’ attorneys have argued that there is a “legal vacuum” surrounding the Venezuelans’ imprisonment because it was not approved by a judge. The habeas corpus request means to force the Nayib Bukele government to justify its actions.

On March 16, the US government invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to forcibly expel 238 Venezuelan citizens, accused of belonging to Tren de Aragua, a gang designated as a foreign terrorist organization by Washington. They were flown to El Salvador and taken to the country’s “Terrorism Confinement Center” (CECOT). The Bukele and Donald Trump administrations signed an agreement that will pay the former US $20,000 per inmate per year.

Salvadoran constitutional lawyer Enrique Anaya claimed that the habeas corpus requests could “expose the legal vacuum” but that the country’s recent history showing a lack of judicial independence made it unlikely that the Venezuelan citizens would be freed.

According to legal aid groups, the El Salvador Supreme Court rejected more than 6,000 habeas corpus petitions last year. Bukele has presided over an official state of emergency since early 2022 to tackle the presence of violent gangs. Salvadoran authorities have drawn criticism over human rights and due process violations, with the country currently holding the world’s largest incarceration rate.

The Maduro government has fired criticism at Bukele for cooperating with the Trump White House’s crackdown on Venezuelan migrants, comparing it to a “slave trade.”

“We have 238 disappeared migrants,” the president said on Tuesday. “They were kidnapped in the United States and taken to a concentration camp in El Salvador.”

Maduro vowed that his government would work tirelessly to secure the release of the 238 Venezuelans detained in El Salvador, as well as ensure the safe return of migrants from US territory.

In recent weeks, Venezuelan relatives and attorneys have denounced the ill-treatment of migrants and denied that they had any ties to organized crime. There have been multiple reports of Venezuelans classified as gang members and imprisoned based on simple profiling such as having tattoos.

Venezuelan authorities and social movements have likewise organized rallies demanding respect for migrants’ human rights and supporting the government’s repatriation efforts. Caracas has coordinated the return of four groups via state airline Conviasa under the government’s “Return to the Homeland” repatriation program. The latest flights landed on Sunday bringing back 199 Venezuelans deported from the US via Honduras.

‘Nazis got better treatment’

Trump’s decision to resort to the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act has likewise been challenged in US courts, with federal Judge James Boasberg imposing a temporary ban on deportations to determine the act’s legality.

On Wednesday, the Washington DC Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the White House’s effort to overturn Boasberg’s restraining order and backed the lower court’s decision.

A three-judge panel voted 2-1 to uphold the ruling, with Circuit Judge Patricia Millett expressing that the migrants were not able to contest the US government’s accusations of belonging to Tren de Aragua.

“Nazis got better treatment under the Alien Enemies Act than has happened here,” she said in a hearing on Monday. Fellow Judge Karen Henderson cast doubt on the administration’s thesis that the Tren de Aragua presence in the US constitutes an “invasion.”

Since taking office in January, the Trump White House has prioritized cracking down on migrants, with Venezuelans particularly singled out. US authorities have canceled Temporary Protected Status (TPS) and the so-called CHNV “parole” programs, both of which allowed Venezuelans to legally stay in US territory.

The administration is expected to take the Alien Enemies Act controversy to the conservative-majority US Supreme Court.  

Edited by José Luis Granados Ceja from Mexico City, Mexico.