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Jaime Ortega, who says he represents 30 of the imprisoned
Venezuelans, said they filed the habeas corpus petition with the
Supreme Court’s Constitutional Chamber. He said that by
extension they requested that it be applied to all Venezuelans
detained in El Salvador.
The maneuver essentially compels the government to prove
someone’s detention was justified.
The Salvadoran government has been silent about the status of
the Venezuelan prisoners since the U.S. government sent them
more than a week ago, despite a U.S. federal judge’s verbal
order to turn the planes around.
The Trump administration is using an 18th-century wartime law to
justify sending the Venezuelans, who it says were members of the
Tren de Aragua gang, which the administration declared an
invading force.
“We represent at this moment 30 Venezuelans who have given us
the power to act, but by extension, we are asking for habeas
corpus for the rest of the Venezuelan citizens who are detained
in our country,” Ortega said.
Salvador Ríos, another lawyer with the firm, said they were
contracted by the Venezuelan government and the Families of
Immigrants Committee in Venezuela. He said the Venezuelans they
represent are not members of the Tren de Aragua and had migrated
from their country and “don’t have any criminal record.”
In February, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele offered to U.S.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio to imprison U.S. deportees or
even U.S. citizens serving prison sentences. The U.S. is paying
El Salvador to hold them for what both governments say is a cost
savings.
But lawyers in both countries have questioned the legal
justification for sending migrants who have not been convicted
or in many cases even charged with a crime to prison in a
foreign country.
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