Quick Hit:

A federal judge has ordered the Trump administration to begin providing due process to nearly 140 Venezuelans deported to El Salvador under a wartime statute, after ruling the immigrants were denied basic constitutional rights.

Key Details:

• Judge James Boasberg said deportees were likely denied due process and likened their plight to a “Kafka novel.”
• The migrants were expelled under the Alien Enemies Act to a notorious Salvadoran prison, CECOT.
• The court rejected an ACLU demand to return the men to the U.S., but ordered the government to propose how to facilitate their legal rights.

Diving Deeper:

In a 69-page ruling issued Wednesday, U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg criticized the Trump Administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport 137 Venezuelan men to El Salvador without any opportunity for them to contest their removal. Calling the men’s treatment akin to a Kafkaesque nightmare, Boasberg ruled that the government must now take steps to provide those deportees with the due process they were denied.

The migrants were accused by U.S. authorities of belonging to Tren de Aragua, a violent criminal gang with alleged links to Venezuela’s government. On March 15, they were flown from Texas to El Salvador and placed in the CECOT prison—a high-security facility infamous for its harsh conditions and use to house suspected terrorists and gang members. Judge Boasberg pointedly stated, “There is simply no way to know for sure, as the CECOT plaintiffs never had any opportunity to challenge the government’s say-so.”

While Boasberg stopped short of ruling on whether the Trump Administration lawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act, he claimed that constitutional rights had been ignored. "Absent this relief," Boasberg warned, "the government could snatch anyone off the street, turn him over to a foreign country and then effectively foreclose any corrective course of action."

The ACLU, representing the deported men, applauded the decision. “The court correctly held that the government cannot send people to a brutal foreign prison without any due process,” said lead attorney Lee Gelernt.

Still, the ruling fell short of the ACLU’s goal of having the men brought back to the U.S. Instead, Boasberg is allowing the administration to propose a plan to provide the detainees the due process rights “constitutionally due” to them, even while they remain imprisoned abroad.

The Justice Department argues the men were now solely under Salvadoran authority. Judge Boasberg called that a “close question,” ultimately agreeing but acknowledging U.S. involvement in arranging their detention.

At the heart of the legal controversy is whether Tren de Aragua’s presence in the U.S. constitutes an “invasion” justifying use of the Alien Enemies Act. Federal courts are divided, and the issue is expected to reach the Supreme Court later this year.