Two new filings from people on planes from the U.S. to El Salvador shed new light on the Alien Enemies Act operation.
A Venezuelan woman said Monday that she was also flown to El Salvador on a deportation flight, where men were forced to sign papers admitting to being part of the gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).
The filing, part of a case challenging the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to remove alleged gang members, gave new insights into the confusion of the flights on March 15, which saw women flown to the Salvadoran prison before officials there turned them away.
„While on the plane the government officials were asking the men to sign a document and they didn’t want to“, wrote the woman, known as S.Z.F.R. „The government officials were pushing them to sign the documents and threatening them. I heard them discussing the documents and they were about the men admitting they were members of TdA.“Why It Matters
The affidavits filed Monday came as a U.S. District Court judge upheld his restraining order on the Trump administration’s use of the AEA, and the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., also heard arguments on the implementation of the policy—as over 200 alleged TdA members were flown to a high-security Salvadoran prison over a week ago.What To Know
A Venezuelan woman detained in Texas gave a detailed account of her detention and removal to El Salvador, where she says she witnessed federal agents urging men to confess gang membership under threat.
Her statement was filed as part of ongoing litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia over the legality of recent mass deportations carried out under President Donald Trump’s invocation of 1798’s AEA.
