Mother Jones has spoken with friends, family members, and lawyers of ten men sent to El Salvador by the Trump administration based on allegations that they are members of the Venezuelan organized crime group Tren de Aragua. All of them say their relatives have tattoos and believe that is why their loved ones were targeted. But they vigorously reject the idea that their sons, brothers, and husbands have anything to do with Tren de Aragua, which the Trump administration recently labeled a foreign terrorist organization. The families have substantiated those assertions to Mother Jones, including—in many cases—by providing official documents attesting to their relatives’ lack of criminal histories in Venezuela. Such evidence might have persuaded US judges that the men were not part of any criminal organization had the Trump administration not deliberately deprived them of due process.
On March 14, President Donald Trump quietly signed a proclamation invoking the Alien Enemies Act—a 1798 law last used during World War II. The order declared that the United States is under invasion by Tren de Aragua. It is the first time in US history that the 18th-century statute, which gives the president extraordinary powers to detain and deport noncitizens, has been used absent a Congressional declaration of war. The administration then employed the wartime authority unlocked by the Alien Enemies Act to quickly load Venezuelans onto deportation flights from Texas to El Salvador.
The Trump administration sent Venezuelans to El Salvador’s most infamous prison. Their families are looking for answers.
www.motherjones.com
I don't pretend to be a lawyer but it seems to me the regime has exposed itself to significant legal liability by virtue of sending what appear to be some innocent men to a notorious El Salvadorian prison based on a misinterpretation of the meaning of their tattoos.
Obviously, any member of the admin who may have committed a crime related to this matter will get a pardon. That is the implicit understanding of anyone carrying out trump's orders which may be illegal. But, even though the regime will disingenuously couch it as Dem's protecting illegal aliens, it appears some of the men taken have legal grounds to be let go. If that is so, one hopes the regime will suffer political repercussions for the constitutional violations it committed and for refusing to comply with court orders. Because if it doesn't, we are closer to the tacit approval of authoritarian governance than we ever have been before.
