Venezuelan migrants once detained in El Salvador seek US justice

On Friday, 252 Venezuelans who were detained in the United States in March and transported to a notorious jail in El Salvador wanted the opportunity to contest their gang membership status in US courts.

The men’s representatives stated they sought an opportunity to defend their reputations during a press conference in Caracas.

The guys were expelled by President Donald Trump’s administration on the grounds that they belonged to the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang and that they violated the Alien Enemies Act.

They were imprisoned and taken to the so-called Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT) in El Salvador, where many say they were subjected to torture.

The men were released four months later in a prisoner exchange deal with the United States, and returned to Venezuela.

A federal court in Washington this week ordered the Trump administration to draw up a plan to “facilitate the return” of dozens of the men.

A judge ruled they “should not have been removed in the manner that they were, with virtually no notice and no opportunity to contest the bases of their removal.”

The court ordered the US government to give the men a chance to contest their gang designations in legal proceedings. This could also be done in other countries, it ruled.

The court gave the government two weeks to submit a proposal.

In a statement read out on their behalf Friday, the migrants urged the US and Salvadoran governments to comply with the ruling.

They claimed that the court’s ruling “sets a crucial precedent for the protection of the rights of all migrants who leave their homes under hardship and vulnerability and who, for the most part, are humble, hard?working families.”

Arturo Suarez, 34, one of the impacted individuals, told AFP, “We want our names cleared and obviously for them to pay and try to make amends for what they did to us unjustly.”

In his own battle against gangs, Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele constructed the CECOT to imprison criminals.

The Trump administration paid El Salvador $6 million to keep the Venezuelans behind bars in a move widely condemned by rights groups.

Caracas is investigating alleged crimes against humanity.