Latest court docket filings recommend the Trump administration “misled federal judges, Congress, and the American individuals” a couple of deal between the U.S. and El Salvador to detain over 200 Venezuelan migrants on the infamous mega-prison known as CECOT, 4 Democratic rating members of Home committees stated in a letter.
The letter, reviewed by ABC Information, was despatched Thursday to Division of Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and calls on officers to show over any and all agreements between the U.S. and El Salvador, which haven’t been made public.
The letter cites court docket filings that appear to contradict the administration’s contention that migrants despatched to the jail are solely underneath the jurisdiction of the federal government of El Salvador.
Jail officers take away handcuffs from a prisoner to enter a cell at most safety penitentiary CECOT (Middle for the Obligatory Housing of Terrorism) on April 4, 2025 in Tecoluca, San Vicente, El Salvador. Amid inner authorized dispute, Trump’s administration continues with its controversial and fast-paced deportation coverage to El Salvador, as a part of a partnership with President Bukele.
Photograph by Alex Peña/Getty Photos
Based on these filings, submitted July 7 in a case difficult the removing of Venezuelan migrants from the U.S., the federal government of El Salvador advised a United Nations working group that the lads in CECOT deported from the U.S. stay the “obligation” of the USA.
“On this context, the jurisdiction and obligation for these individuals lie solely with the competent international authorities, by advantage of worldwide agreements signed and in accordance with the ideas of sovereignty and worldwide cooperation in legal issues,” El Salvador officers stated in a report back to the U.N.
Of their letter, the rating members stated the submitting “signifies that the Division of Justice has misled federal courts in assertions relating to the settlement with El Salvador.”
ABC Information has reached out to DHS and the State Division for touch upon the letter.
The Trump administration has insisted for months that it’s unable to return any of the migrants despatched to CECOT as a result of they’re underneath El Salvador’s authority.
In March, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime authority, to deport two planeloads of alleged Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador as a part of a $6 million deal the administration struck with El Salvador President Nayib Bukele to accommodate migrant detainees as a part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
The Trump administration argued that the lads who have been deported are members of Tren de Aragua which the federal government has deemed a international terrorist group and a “hybrid legal state” that’s invading the nation.
Nonetheless, one ICE official said in a sworn declaration submitted in federal court that lots of the noncitizens who have been deported didn’t have legal information in the USA as a result of “they’ve solely been in the USA for a brief time period.”
U.S. Consultant Jamie Raskin (D-MD) speaks to the media after the U.S. Home of Representatives voted to move U.S. President Donald Trump’s sweeping spending and tax invoice, on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C., U.S., July 3, 2025.
Ken Cedeno/Reuters
The Democrats’ letter additionally highlighted reporting by The New York Instances that stated the deal between the U.S. and Bukele, additionally included an settlement to return some prime leaders of the MS-13 gang who allegedly had information of a “corrupt discount” between Bukele and the gang “that has performed a big function within the lower in gang violence in El Salvador.” ABC Information has not independently confirmed that reporting.
Along with the U.S.-El Salvador settlement, the lawmakers are asking the Trump administration to supply details about the way it screens migrants with legitimate asylum claims or withholding of removing orders, and Conference In opposition to Torture safety claims earlier than they’re faraway from the nation.
“Congress has the appropriate and the duty to conduct oversight over the chief department and decide what offers our authorities has struck with a international dictator to imprison people seized in the USA in an effort to put them past the reaches of our courts,” they wrote.
The signers of the letter have been Reps. Jamie Raskin, of Maryland; Bennie Thompson, of Mississippi; Robert Garcia, of California; and Gregory Meeks, of New York.
