WASHINGTON (AP) — The Trump administration said Monday that it has deported 17 more “violent criminals” from the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 gangs to El Salvador, as it doubles down on a policy of removing people from the U.S. to countries other than their own despite criticism over lack of transparency and human rights issues.
The State Department said the immigrants were removed Sunday night. The statement said murderers and rapists were among them but didn't give details of the nationalities or alleged crimes of those removed. The office of El Salvador President Nayib Bukele, however, said Salvadorans and Venezuelans were among the prisoners.
“These criminals will no longer terrorize our communities and citizens," Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in the statement. "Once again, we extend our gratitude to President Bukele and the government of El Salvador for their unparalleled partnership.”
The men were flown to El Salvador by the U.S. military, the State Department said. As seen in video from the Salvadoran government, they were transported by bus to El Salvador’s maximum security prison, changed into the prison’s standard white T-shirts and shorts and had their heads shaven.
They were walked by guards into a cell block, the video shows, and some were made to kneel upon the floor with their wrists cuffed behind their backs and ankles shackled. Guards put one or both hands on the men's necks and forced them to walk quickly while bent at the waist and shackled with their heads down. Some men in the video grunted from the exertion, and one appeared to vomit on the floor while listening to instructions.
More than 200 Venezuelan immigrants facing deportation were sent to El Salvador earlier this month and are also being held in the maximum security prison.
President Donald Trump's administration also has deported immigrants of various nationalities to other countries in Central America. But El Salvador is the only country where the U.S. is sending people so they can be imprisoned there.
Bukele offered to jail immigrants the U.S. wanted to deport — regardless of nationality — during a February meeting with Rubio.
On Monday evening, Trump thanked Bukele and told reporters, “I got elected on the basis of getting bad people out of our country that shouldn’t be here.”
Trump has claimed the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is invading the United States and invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime authority that allows the president broader leeway on policy and executive action to speed up mass deportations. He sent dozens of people to El Salvador before a judge barred further deportations under the act's authority. The administration is now asking the Supreme Court to allow it to resume those deportations.
The State Department, the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defense, which handled the removals Sunday, did not give detailed information about who was on the flight, their alleged crimes or under what legal authority they were removed from the country.
Immigration and civil rights advocates have challenged the Trump administration's deportations of people to countries other than their own, saying they first need to be given the opportunity to say whether they fear persecution or torture there. Advocates have also sued to prevent use of the Alien Enemies Act.
A federal judge on Friday temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting people to third countries without first being allowed to argue that it would jeopardize their safety.
The judge ruled that people with final orders of removal must have “a meaningful opportunity” to argue that being sent to a country other than their own presents a level of danger deemed worthy of protection.
On Sunday, the Trump administration asked the court to reverse itself and gave guidance that Homeland Security uses to determine whether someone can be removed to a third country.
Anwen Hughes, a lawyer with Human Rights First — one of the groups suing the government — said Monday her team is still trying to get information about the Sunday removals, including the nationalities of those involved and what authority was used to remove them.
In general, Hughes said, when immigrants are deported to their own country, they're likely to understand the conditions there, and they usually have family or friends to help them. When sent elsewhere, they're often in a position of vulnerability, Hughes said, because they don't know that country or have the rights of a citizen.
On Monday, lawyers hired by the Venezuelan government to represent Venezuelans deported from the U.S. and jailed in El Salvador said they had petitioned El Salvador’s Human Rights Ombudsman to verify that their clients were being held at the maximum security gang prison. Neither the U.S. nor the Salvadoran government have released a list of those who were deported to and imprisoned in El Salvador earlier in March.
Lawyer Jaime Ortega said their petition also asks the ombudsman to check their health and affirm whether those who need it are receiving medical attention.
Last week, the law firm filed habeas corpus petitions on behalf of 30 of the more than 200 Venezuelans sent to El Salvador. Asked about the additional Venezuelans sent Sunday, the lawyers said they had no information.
Ortega insisted that the U.S. still had yet to share any evidence that the prisoners were criminals.
Also, on Monday, a federal judge paused Trump administration plans to end temporary legal protections for hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans, a week before they were scheduled to expire.
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Aleman reported from San Salvador, El Salvador.
Rebecca Santana And Marcos Aleman, The Associated Press
