US District Judge Brian Murphy said at a hearing in Boston that the information was necessary to assess the #Trump administration's claims that flying 4 #Venezuelans held at the #US naval base in #Cuba to #ElSalvador did not flout Murphy's order from March because the flight was conducted by the Department of #Defense.
About time someone did this:
Judge questions US #Defense Dept role in #Venezuelans' #deportations
A federal judge in Boston ordered the #Trump admin to turn over the names of any migrants flown recently from the US naval base in #GuantanamoBay to #ElSalvador so he could determine whether they were deported in violation of a court order he issued.
#law #immigration #AlienEnemiesAct #judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #AbuseOfPower
https://www.reuters.com/world/us/judge-questions-us-defense-department-role-venezuelans-deportations-2025-04-28/
Fascinating and important article about how a slumlord's attempts to avoid maintaining his buildings resulted in America's current Tren de Aragua craze.
Maybe most interesting of all is that *none* of the actual gang members in the viral Aurora Colorado gang invasion video were sent to #CECOT.
Seems highly relevant to remember that there is a cabal of anti-Maduro Venezuelans running El Salvador with Bukele these days: https://universeodon.com/@cryptadamist/114354746811179149
https://prospect.org/justice/2025-04-24-runaway-tren-de-aragua-colorado-housing-gangs/
The cases present a kafkaesque situation. The govt did not remove these #Venezuelans under the wartime #AlienEnemiesAct, which the #Trump admin argued allowed it to send people to #CECOT absent #DueProcess, an argument #SCOTUS would later reject. Rather, the admin has contended in court filings that these individuals were sent to #ElSalvador under the #Immigration & Nationality Act [#INA].
In these cases, the #Trump admin invoked standard #immigration authority to hold #Venezuelans indefinitely in #CECOT, a Salvadoran detention facility notorious for allegations of forced labor [#slavery] & #torture. The move, done under a bilateral agreement with #ElSalvador, has left detainees incommunicado & held WITHOUT CHARGE — & their families & attorneys fighting for their release.
Inside The Fight To Return The Other Men #Trump Sent To #CECOT
The admin removed >100 #Venezuelans to the detention camp without using the #AlienEnemiesAct.
When the Trump admin sent >200 Venezuelans to an El Salvador detention camp last month, nearly half of them were subject to standard #immigration #law.
#Rendition #StateSponsoredAbduction #Constitution #CivilRights #HumanRights #DueProcess #DualState #ChecksAndBalances #Judiciary #SeparationOfPowers #AbuseOfPower
https://talkingpointsmemo.com/news/inside-the-fight-to-return-the-other-men-trump-sent-to-cecot
#SupremeCourt temporarily blocks #deportations of #Venezuelans held in northern #Texas
By Nicholas Riccardi, April 19, 2025
"The Supreme Court on Saturday blocked, for now, the deportations of any Venezuelans held in northern Texas under an 18th-century wartime law.
"In a brief order, the court directed the Trump administration not to remove Venezuelans held in the #BluebonnetDetentionCenter 'until further order of this court.'
"Justices #ClarenceThomas and #SamuelAlito dissented.
"The high court acted in an emergency appeal from the American Civil Liberties Union contending that immigration authorities appeared to be moving to restart removals under the #AlienEnemiesAct of 1798. The Supreme Court had said earlier in April that deportations could proceed only if those about to be removed had a chance to argue their case in court and were given 'a reasonable time' to contest their pending removals.
" 'We are deeply relieved that the Court has temporarily blocked the removals. These individuals were in imminent danger of spending the rest of their lives in a brutal Salvadoran prison without ever having had any due process,' ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said in an email."
More than 50 #Venezuelans were scheduled to be flown out of the country — presumably to #ElSalvador — from an #immigration detention center in Anson, Texas. The #ACLU in recent days had already secured court orders barring similar deportations under the #law, the #AlienEnemiesAct, in other places including New York, Denver & Brownsville, Texas.
The situation in Anson was urgent enough that ACLU lawyers mounted challenges in 3 different courts within 5 hours on Friday.
Fascinating 2021 reporting from El Salvador's exiled opposition newspaper El Faro (they were forced to flee to Costa Rica a few years ago after criticizing the "world's coolest dictator") about a cabal of Venezuelans who are part of the Bukele regime.
Hits different now that the US is using El Salvador's #CECOT prison as a penal colony to house #Venezuelans...
* spanish: https://elfaro.net/es/202106/el_salvador/25520/El-gabinete-oculto-de-venezolanos-que-gobierna-con-Bukele-y-su-familia.htm
* machine translation: https://elfaro-net.translate.goog/es/202106/el_salvador/25520/El-gabinete-oculto-de-venezolanos-que-gobierna-con-Bukele-y-su-familia.htm?_x_tr_sl=auto&_x_tr_tl=en&_x_tr_hl=en&_x_tr_pto=wapp&_x_tr_hist=true
Also while I'm here I'll mention that El Faro is an incredible resource for investigative reporting on Bukele and as a bonus they also publish an English language version (creatively titled "El Faro English"): https://elfaro.net/en?ref=home
US Federal Judge #Boasberg says he has found probable cause to charge #Trump Administration officials with criminal contempt for refusing to comply with his order blocking extradition of #Venezuelans https://www.reuters.com/legal/judge-finds-trump-administration-disregarded-order-venezuelan-deportations-2025-04-16/
Venezuelan band Rawayana basks in success after clashing with Maduro https://www.byteseu.com/916979/ #AuthoritarianLeader #band #country #LastYear #maduro #Montenegro #music #rawayana #song #success #tour #venezeula #Venezuela #venezuelans #World
"They have no blankets or pillows, no visits or phone calls, and they mostly sit in silence all day long for fear of being punished by the armed guards wearing balaclavas. Abuse, torture, disease, and death are all rampant. There are mass graves for the prisoners who die; their families are not notified of their passing."
But, hey, what's to worry about? My crypto account is soaring!
#Trump #fascism #immigrants #Venezuelans #ElSalvador #violence #cruelty
/7
"men lined up so tightly that they must kneel with their heads on the backs of their neighbor, their eyes lowered, their heads shaved during the intake process. They can then expect no sunlight, inadequate food and water, and housing in cells where 80 to 100 men are kept shoulder-to-shoulder."
#Trump #fascism #immigrants #Venezuelans #ElSalvador #violence #cruelty
/6
"Last month, 238 Venezuelans were abducted and deported to a prison in El Salvador, El Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT). The images of said prison should shock even the most jaded conscience:"
~ Kate Manne
#Trump #fascism #immigrants #Venezuelans #ElSalvador #violence #cruelty
/5
https://katemanne.substack.com/p/how-women-get-sent-to-the-dog-house
"Late Monday night, the Supreme Court issued two rulings that together connote such gratuitous cruelty that it is difficult to comprehend what could be going on in the minds of the far-right justices in the majority."
~ Kim Wehle
#Trump #ICE #immigrants #deportations #Venezuelans #SupremeCourt #AlienEnemiesAct
/9
"The court will allow the administration to use the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to remove immigrants, even though the US is not at war, and gangs are not a country, and there’s no evidence that the five men who are suing, or any of the nearly 300 deported men, were in the Tren de Aragua gang that the administration claims to be at war with, or any other gang."
~ Marcie Jones
#Trump #ICE #immigrants #deportations #Venezuelans #SupremeCourt #AlienEnemiesAct
/8
"Instead, the reactionary majority of the Supreme Court fabricated a way to reverse decisions by lower courts that effectively found that Trump was acting unlawfully."
#Trump #ICE #immigrants #deportations #Venezuelans #AbregoGarcia #SupremeCourt #corruption #JohnRoberts
/7
"The Supreme Court had two opportunities on Monday to stop Trump's lawless actions in seizing and deporting migrants before granting them due process and judicial review. In two related but separate cases, the Court looked past the fact that Trump is operating outside the law and in contravention of the Constitution."
~ Robert B. Hubbell
#Trump #ICE #immigrants #deportations #Venezuelans #AbregoGarcia #SupremeCourt #corruption #JohnRoberts
/6
https://roberthubbell.substack.com/p/profiles-in-courage-and-cowardice
"The order appears to be in keeping with a troubling tendency of the Roberts Court: to look at Trump’s trampling of laws more as an opportunity to do some procedural tinkering on untested legal questions than a danger in need of reining in."
~ Bulwark
#Trump #ICE #immigrants #deportations #Venezuelans #AbregoGarcia #SupremeCourt #corruption #JohnRoberts
/5
https://www.thebulwark.com/p/pete-hegseth-maya-aneglou-naval-academy-caged-bird-sings-dei
"THE SUPREME COURT’S TdA OPINION IS TERRIFYING. Not because it’s wrong, although it is, but because of how comfortable the Court seems in abusing authority to get to what it must see as an institutionally desirable outcome.”
~ Lee Kovarsky
#Trump #ICE #immigrants #deportations #Venezuelans #AbregoGarcia #SupremeCourt #corruption #JohnRoberts
/4
https://bsky.app/profile/kovarsky.bsky.social/post/3lmbctxbhwc2h
