Venezuelan deportee can return to US but fears repeat of ordeal: ‘I’m not over that nightmare yet’ | US immigration

A US federal judge’s order that some Venezuelan men sent by the Trump administration to a notorious prison in El Salvador be allowed to return to the US to fight their cases was greeted with hope and a sense of vindication – but also fear – by one of the deportees.

US district judge James Boasberg reigned He said Thursday in Washington, D.C., that the Trump administration should facilitate the return of deportees currently in countries other than Venezuela and that they should be given the opportunity to seek due process, which they were denied after being illegally deported from the United States last March.

Boasberg added that the U.S. government must cover travel expenses for those who want to come to the United States to discuss immigration cases.

Luis Muñoz Pinto, a 27-year-old affected by the incident, spoke exclusively to the Guardian by phone from Bogota, the Colombian capital, where he has been living since his release from detention in El Salvador on Thursday.

“I want to return to the United States to defend myself in court and prove that I am not a member of Tren de Aragua. [gang] – But what happens if they detain me and I have to live with another nightmare?” Muñoz Pinto said.

He has no criminal record in any country. He was an engineering student in Venezuela and fled first to Colombia and then north after being beaten by police while protesting against the dictatorship in 2024. He had an appointment in the US to seek asylum under the Biden administration, but was instead arrested and accused of being a member of the dangerous Venezuelan criminal gang Tren de Aragua because he had some tattoos, although no evidence of actual gang affiliations was presented.

The judge acknowledged that it was his understanding that if either of the men returned to the US to argue in court, it was “they would be detained upon arrival.”

Muñoz Pinto said: “Do you have any idea what my family went through after they found out I was sent to that prison in El Salvador? I went from chasing a dream to working and supporting my family to being humiliated by guards hitting me in the face and all over my body.”

On Saturday night, March 15 last year, the Trump administration deported multiple people. 250 Venezuelan men travel to El Salvador, defying court block and ordering such flights to return.

Footage later emerged of the men being handcuffed and held doubled over by Salvadoran police, before their heads were shaved and imprisoned in the infamous Cecot mega-prison. Former detainees said they were told they would die there and had no outside contact with lawyers or their families. They were later extradited to Venezuela last July in a prisoner exchange brokered by the United States.

On Thursday, Boasberg told the Trump administration to prioritize deportees currently living in third countries but also to clarify “whether it is possible to return claimants who are still in Venezuela” as U.S.-Venezuelan relations remain strained.

White House spokeswoman Abigail Jackson criticized Boasberg’s decision, saying in a statement that it was “an absurd and unlawful decision made by a far-left judicial activist who sought to undermine the President’s legal authority to deport.”

He added: “Americans elected President Trump based on his promise to deport criminal illegal aliens and Make America Safe Again. Boasberg has no right to stop the will of the American people, and this will not be the final say on the matter.”

Lee Gelernt, the ACLU’s lead attorney on the case, said he was aware of only a small portion of those deported living outside Venezuela.

Boasberg’s order applies in principle to the 137 men deported to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act, which Donald Trump introduced as the US president made an unprecedented claim that the US was “occupied” by gang members with alleged ties to the Venezuelan state. Others sent to Cecot last year were deported under regular U.S. immigration law and are not covered by the current case.

“It is worth emphasizing that this situation would never have arisen if the government had initially given the plaintiffs their constitutional rights before deporting them,” Boasberg said Thursday. he said.

But he added that the number of men who might want to return to the U.S. “will likely be very small, if not zero.”

Muñoz Pinto was torn apart.

“I know Trump deported me to Cecot and I haven’t gotten over this nightmare yet, but the USA is still the land of opportunity,” he said.

He said he was deported under the Alien Enemies Act; This is a fact confirmed by the Guardian through sources familiar with the case who were not authorized to speak publicly about the matter.

Before Boasberg’s latest order, the ACLU had argued in court that these people should either have the right to return to the United States or have the right to a remote hearing to challenge their deportation.

In January, lawyers for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio defended in court He argued that bringing the 137 people back to the United States would “risk material harm to U.S. foreign policy interests in Venezuela.”

Rubio’s lawyers added that even remote hearings “carry a serious risk of deliberate interference by anti-American elements in Venezuela that would undermine the interests of justice.”

Human rights researchers found Cecot said his guards used beatings, torture, denial of food and allegations of sexual assault. Lawyers for some Venezuelans said they were subjected to “state-sanctioned torture.”

The Salvadoran government makes no effort to publicly refute allegations of violence and deprivation amounting to torture. President Nayib Bukele responded sarcastically to Hillary Clinton’s allegations of persecution at Cecot last year. Some online influencers are invited to make videos of the harsh conditions.

Before Boasberg’s latest decision, Muñoz Pinto had spoken to the Guardian himself in Bogotá in his first non-television interview. He made a brief appearance on CBS’s 60 Minutes, which aired in the US last month.

Muñoz Pinto recounted upon arrival in Cecot: “Three guards threw me to the ground and kicked me in the face so badly that my nose bled and my gums bled.”

He added: “I started crying because I didn’t know what to do, I tried to be a good man since I was little, I went to college, I tried to help my family in Venezuela who were still sick, and at the time I was in the worst prison on the entire planet and I hadn’t committed a crime.”

His old friends in Colombia helped him find a job delivering food throughout Bogota, citing it as a better opportunity to financially support his family than he could get in Venezuela.

Muñoz Pinto said: “This court decision is devastating because I want to go back [to the US]Yes but why do they want me to be arrested again? How many months this time? “I’m not sure I can do this again.”

Additional reporting by The Associated Press