Trump’s migrant deportations to Central America run into legal hurdles

The agreements reached by various Central American countries to receive migrants deported from the United States are running into new legal obstacles. In El Salvador, a letter signed by 12 U.N. experts and made public this week urgently calls on President Nayib Bukele to explain the legal and health status of 238 Venezuelans held since March 15 in his maximum-security prison, CECOT. The letter warns that he could be committing crimes of torture and enforced disappearances.

Meanwhile, in Costa Rica, the Supreme Court has ordered the release of 28 out of 200 immigrants of various nationalities sent by Donald Trump’s administration, who remain in shelters from which they are not allowed to leave. The court now demands that they be freed within a maximum period of 15 days.

In the case of El Salvador, the U.N. sent a 22-page letter to the president through diplomatic channels on April 17, but it was not made public until this week. The document is a warning from eight U.N. special rapporteurs, including the Special Rapporteur on the Protection of the Human Rights of Migrants, the Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel Treatment or Punishment, and the Special Rapporteur on Extrajudicial Executions; as well as two experts and two working groups with special mandates from the same organization.

In the letter, the organization says it is “concerned” that the detention of Venezuelans at the CECOT is not compatible with international human rights law, the prohibition of enforced disappearance and freedom from torture, among other rights. “We are concerned that the deportations and related detentions in El Salvador were carried out in a manner that could have resulted in enforced disappearances, including short-term disappearances,” the letter states.

The document also recalls that enforced disappearance is prohibited by the United Nations Declaration on the Protection of All Persons from Enforced Disappearance, to which El Salvador is a signatory. It also establishes a maximum period of 60 days for the president to respond through official channels. That response was due by June 17, but it is unknown whether it was ever submitted.

Legal limbo

The organization states in its letter that the Venezuelans detained in Bukele’s mega-prison are in a legal limbo. This situation has already been flagged by other local human rights groups, as well as by the lawyers assigned to their defense in the country.

Additionally, the letter says this circumstance could constitute the crime of arbitrary detention. Therefore, it urges the Salvadoran government to comply with international laws and practices, “including the immediate release of any arbitrarily detained person and facilitating their voluntary departure from El Salvador.”

“Neither the U.S. nor the Salvadoran authorities have revealed the names or legal status of the detainees, nor have they provided information about their alleged gang associations or criminal activities,” the letter continues. “Although CECOT is a prison, it is unknown whether the detainees are subject to any criminal investigation in El Salvador, whether they are being held under immigration detention law or any other legal framework.”

Costa Rican court says government violated migrants’ rights

Since his return to power, Donald Trump has pushed several Central American countries — including El Salvador, Costa Rica, Panama, and Guatemala — to sign agreements to become “third countries” that can receive deportees while their legal status in the United States is resolved. These agreements were signed during the first tour of Secretary of State Marco Rubio in February of this year.

That same month, Costa Rica received 200 migrants of various nationalities who were housed in shelters without being allowed to leave. Of these, 28 remain detained. On Tuesday, the country’s Constitutional Court ordered the government to release the migrants within a maximum period of 15 days.

The Supreme Court justices argued that the Costa Rican government violated the migrants’ rights by not providing timely and sufficient information, not allowing their contact with the media, nor informing them about their possibility to apply for asylum in the country.

In El Salvador, the situation of the deportees sent by Trump is much more dire, as they have been held in a maximum security prison alongside the country’s most dangerous criminals, members of the Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13) and Barrio 18 gangs.

The letter sent by the U.N. states that the Venezuelans could be victims of arbitrary detention and forced disappearance, since it is unclear under which Salvadoran laws they are being held or whether they are subject to a criminal investigation. The only known fact is that there is an agreement between both countries, but that document is not public. Salvadoran law establishes that this type of agreement must be ratified by the Legislative Assembly, but so far no law has been passed, nor have existing ones been amended to allow this.

The U.N. also raises concerns that the Salvadoran authorities are denying access to lawyers and independent human rights organizations, who would be able to verify the conditions under which the Venezuelans are being held. It adds that, despite the fact that El Salvador has been governed by a state of emergency for three years, “no circumstance, whether threat of war, state of war, internal political instability, or any other public emergency, may be invoked to justify enforced disappearances.”

“In this regard, the Working Group reiterates that, regardless of its classification, the practice of states resorting to the deprivation of liberty of individuals and refusing to acknowledge it or to reveal the fate or whereabouts of the person concerned, for any reason or duration and in any context, constitutes an enforced disappearance and is a violation of a jus cogens norm of international human rights law,” it says.

The document also states that the Salvadoran government has violated the right to consular protection of the imprisoned Venezuelans, since both countries broke diplomatic relations in November 2019, when Bukele expelled the Venezuelan diplomatic corps, arguing that he did not recognize the legitimacy of Nicolás Maduro’s government.

This week, Venezuela’s Attorney General Tarek William Saab issued an official statement calling the Salvadoran government’s response “cynical” for denying official intervention on behalf of its nationals, arguing that their request was not made through diplomatic channels but via a private email.

A group of lawyers hired by the Venezuelan government filed a habeas corpus petition a month ago requesting their immediate release and the ability to have contact with them. In a response issued last Friday, the magistrates of El Salvador’s Constitutional Chamber replied evasively. In two sections, the magistrates even questioned the lawyers on how they can be certain that their clients were subjected to force by authorities, and how they know their clients are actually being held at CECOT — even though the Salvadoran president himself made it public in a video that reached global audiences.

Although the agreement between Bukele and Trump is secret, several journalistic investigations have revealed that the Salvadoran leader’s real interest is not the economic compensation, as he stated on his social media, but the return of nine MS-13 gang leaders who could reveal details about their secret negotiations with the government in a New York court. To date, the Trump administration has been compliant with Bukele in this regard and has deported two of those leaders, thereby undoing years of work by U.S. agencies that captured them. It remains to be seen whether this deal will continue to operate.

Sign up for our weekly newsletter to get more English-language news coverage from EL PAÍS USA Edition