The greater than 200 Venezuelan migrants who have been deported by the Trump administration to El Salvador’s mega-prison in March have left El Salvador to be despatched to Venezuela as a part of a prisoner swap that included People being held in Venezuela, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele introduced on X.
The deal included the discharge of 10 People held in Venezuela, based on U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who stated the end result was that “each wrongfully detained American in Venezuela is now free and again in our homeland.” As well as, the deal included the discharge of some “Venezuelan political prisoners and detainees” being held by the federal government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, the U.S. stated.
Relating to the return of Venezuelan migrants being held within the infamous CECOT jail in El Salvador, Bukele stated within the put up on X: “As we speak, we have now handed over all of the Venezuelan nationals detained in our nation, accused of being a part of the legal group Tren de Aragua. As was provided to the Venezuelan regime again in April, we carried out this change in return for a substantial variety of Venezuelan political prisoners, those that regime had saved in its prisons for years, in addition to all of the Americans it was holding as hostages.”
Bukele’s put up on X included a video of what seems to be the deportees boarding a aircraft.
Troopers stand guard on the Terrorist Confinement Heart (CECOT) in Tecoluca, El Salvador, March 26, 2025.
Alex Brandon/POOL/AFP through Getty Photos, FILE
In a press release, Venezuela’s authorities confirmed the discharge of 252 prisoners from CECOT.
The Venezuelans have been despatched to El Salvador after the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act — an 18th century wartime authority used to take away noncitizens with little-to-no due course of — to deport two planeloads of alleged migrant gang members to El Salvador by arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid legal state” that’s invading the USA.
Many households and attorneys of the Venezuelans have denied they’ve gang ties and in April an official for Immigration and Customs Enforcement stated in a sworn declaration submitted in federal court docket that most of the noncitizens who have been deported didn’t have legal data in the USA.
“Whereas it’s true that most of the [Tren de Aragua gang] members eliminated below the AEA should not have legal data in the USA, that’s as a result of they’ve solely been in the USA for a brief time period. The dearth of a legal document doesn’t point out they pose a restricted menace,” the official stated within the submitting in March.
The migrants have been despatched to CECOT as a part of a $6 million deal the Trump administration made with Bukele to deal with migrant detainees as a part of Trump’s immigration crackdown.
Over the previous a number of months, Trump and administration officers stated they have been unable to return any of the migrants despatched to CECOT as a result of the migrants have been below El Salvador’s authority.
However in court docket filings submitted final month, the federal government of El Salvador instructed a United Nations working group that the Venezuelans despatched to CECOT have been the duty of the USA.
In a press release to ABC Information, Lee Gelernt, lead counsel within the CECOT litigation for the American Civil Liberties Union, stated the administration seems to be “attempting to keep away from all judicial accountability.”
“The administration despatched these people to languish for months incommunicado in probably the most infamous prisons on this planet with none due course of and now seems to with this newest maneuver to be attempting to keep away from all judicial accountability,” Gelernt stated.
People included within the swap
5 U.S. residents and 5 U.S. everlasting residents who had been unlawfully detained in Venezuela have been launched in a prisoner change, based on the group Hostage Support Worldwide.
They embrace Renzo Huamanchumo, Jorge Marcelo Vargas, Lucas Hunter, Wilbert Castaneda, Jonathan Pagan Gonzalez and Fabian Buglione Reyes, based on the group. They have been detained between August 2024 and January 2025, it stated.
“It is a second of nice reduction and gratitude,” Hostage Support President Nizar Zakka stated in a statement. “Our hearts are full of pleasure that these males will lastly reunite with their households. We commend the Trump Administration for its diligent and continued efforts to carry People unlawfully detained overseas residence.”
The Convey Our Households Dwelling Marketing campaign additionally confirmed that Hunter, Vargas and Castaneda are among the many People included within the swap. In a post on X, the group thanked Trump and U.S. officers it says “stayed true to [their] phrase” in securing the People’ launch.
Castaneda is an active-duty U.S. Navy SEAL who was detained in September 2024 following private journey to Venezuela. He was accused of main a CIA-linked plot to overthrow Maduro, which the State Division has referred to as “categorically false.”
The State Division’s Workplace of Particular Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs shared a photo on X of the People on a aircraft headed again to the U.S. with American flags.
“Till in the present day, extra People have been wrongfully held in Venezuela than another nation on this planet,” Rubio stated in a press release. “It’s unacceptable that Venezuelan regime representatives arrested and jailed U.S. nationals below extremely questionable circumstances and with out correct due course of.”
ABC Information’ Shannon Kingston and Aicha Elhammar contributed to this report.
