The US maintains control of the Venezuelan men it deported to a notorious prison, El Salvador's government told a UN office—despite claims to the contrary from both countries. The Trump administration has said all along it can't return any of the deportees because they're not under US authority. El Salvador's argument was included in a court filing on Monday, ABC News reports. "In this context, the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities," Salvadoran officials wrote after being asked the question by the UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights.
The court case involves more than 100 migrants who are fighting their deportations to the mega-prison known as the Terrorism Confinement Center. That's where Kilmar Abrego Garcia was held, one of more than 200 men accused of being members of a violent Venezuelan criminal gang. Filings last week showed he has described beatings and other mistreatment of inmates. "El Salvador has confirmed what we and everyone else understood: it is the United States that controls what happens to the Venezuelans languishing at CECOT," ACLU lawyer Lee Gelernt said in an email. "Remarkably the US government didn't provide this information to us or the court." The Trump administration has not released the names of the men it sent to El Salvador.
The US, which is paying El Salvador to imprison the men, has said it couldn't bring them back because they're beyond the reach of US courts and have no due process rights or other constitutional guarantees, per the AP. El Salvador contradicted the administration, saying, "The Salvadoran State emphatically states that its authorities have not arrested, detained, or transferred the persons referred to" by the UN office. "The actions of the State of El Salvador have been limited to the implementation of a bilateral cooperation mechanism with another State," the report added.
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