Judge directs Trump administration to ensure fair legal procedures for migrants sent to El Salvador
Ruling requires administration to grant migrants in El Salvador right to challenge deportation under Alien Enemies Act
ISTANBUL
A US federal judge ruled Wednesday that the Trump administration must give hundreds of migrants held at El Salvador’s CECOT high-security prison the right to legally challenge their detention and deportation under President Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act.
The ruling covers all noncitizens taken from US custody and sent to CECOT on March 15 and 16, 2025, solely under the Presidential Proclamation titled “Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act Regarding the Invasion of the United States by Tren de Aragua,” NBC News reported.
US District Judge James Boasberg wrote that officials denied migrants the chance to challenge their removal, stating they were “plainly deprived” of their right to seek habeas relief. He added that while the president may have lawfully invoked the Alien Enemies Act and the migrants might be gang members, “there is simply no way to know for sure” since they were never given a chance to contest the government’s claims.
In March, Trump used the Alien Enemies Act to quickly detain and deport immigrants he claimed were part of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang labeled a terrorist group by his administration and accused of using mass migration to harm Americans.
A day after invoking the Act, the Trump administration said it had deported hundreds of suspected Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador on at least two flights—despite Judge Boasberg’s ruling at the time blocking the removals and ordering any such flights to return to the US.
The Trump administration appealed the block on its deportations, but the D.C. Circuit upheld the ruling. The Supreme Court later criticized the administration for giving detainees just 24 hours to contest removal, sending the case back to the appeals court.
Judge Boasberg pointed out that the Supreme Court unanimously agreed migrants must be allowed to challenge their removal in court first, yet officials “spirited away planeloads of people” before that could happen. He added that many now held in CECOT “have no connection to the gang” and are imprisoned abroad on “flimsy, even frivolous, accusations.”
