The government of El Salvador told United Nations investigators that the Trump administration retains control over a group of Venezuelan men deported from the U.S. to a controversial Salvadoran prison—contradicting public claims made by officials in both countries.
The admission appears in new court filings by attorneys for more than 100 migrants contesting their deportation to the Terrorism Confinement Center, or CECOT, a high-security facility infamous for alleged human rights abuses.
Salvadoran authorities, responding to questions from the U.N. Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, said that “jurisdiction and legal responsibility” for the detainees rests solely with U.S. officials. The deportations occurred in March despite a judge’s order to halt the flights.
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Newsweek reached out to the U.S. Department of Justice (DOJ) and Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for comment via contact form and email Monday afternoon.
Why It Matters
The Trump administration has argued that the men are now outside U.S. legal jurisdiction and no longer protected by constitutional rights. However, lawyers for the deportees say the U.N. response undermines that claim.
“El Salvador has confirmed what we and everyone else understood: it is the United States that controls what happens to the Venezuelans languishing at CECOT,” said ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt.
The administration had paid El Salvador $6 million to detain 300 migrants under a deal justified using the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act.
That arrangement, and a mistaken deportation involving a Maryland resident, Kilmar Abrego Garcia, barred by court order from being sent abroad, have drawn lawsuits and sharp criticism from immigrant rights groups, who argue the policy violates constitutional due process.
While Abrego Garcia’s case, which involved the U.S. Supreme Court ordering the Trump administration to facilitate his return, drew the most attention, other cases of potential mistaken removals to CECOT have meant the scope of J.G.G. v Trump has expanded.
The case was originally brought to stop the deportation flights to El Salvador in mid-March under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), which President Donald Trump invoked to speed up the removals of immigrants with suspected or proven ties to the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).
A judge did issue an order preventing the flights, but two of the three planes had already left the U.S., with over 200 men and women on board. El Salvador would not accept the women, sending them back to detention centers in the U.S.
As the legal challenges to the use of the AEA and CECOT mounted, the Trump administration insisted that once the deportees were out of the U.S., they were no longer its responsibility. The filing Monday appeared to fly against that argument.
What Did El Salvador Tell The UN?
According to the filing, the Salvadoran government told the United Nations Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances (“WGEID”) that it was not the authority that had “arrested, detained, or transferred” the immigrants whose conditions were being looked into.
“The actions of the State of El Salvador have been limited to the implementation of a bilateral cooperation mechanism with another State, through which it has facilitated the use of the Salvadoran prison infrastructure for the custody of persons detained within the scope of the justice system and law enforcement of that other State,” El Salvador’s government wrote.
“In this context, the jurisdiction and legal responsibility for these persons lie exclusively with the competent foreign authorities, by virtue of international agreements signed and in accordance with the principles of sovereignty and international cooperation in criminal matters.”
What People Are Saying
Democracy Forward, one of the groups suing the Trump administration, on X: “A new document from El Salvador to the United Nations completely contradicts claims the Trump admin used to justify disappearing people from the United States. Our team will continue fighting for justice in court.”
What’s Next
J.G.G. v Trump continues through the U.S. District Court in the District of Columbia, along with other legal challenges to the administration’s actions on deportations. Abrego Garcia is back in the U.S., facing criminal charges in Tennessee.
This article includes reporting by the Associated Press.
Update: 7/7/25, 5:31 p.m. ET: This article was updated with new information and remarks.
