All non-citizens deported from the U.S. to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador must be afforded the opportunity to seek habeas relief in court, ruled a federal judge Wednesday.
U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Wednesday ordered the Trump administration to provide all non-citizens deported from the U.S. to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador to be afforded the opportunity to seek habeas relief in court, and challenge their alleged gang status— the latest in a heated fight centered on President Donald Trump’s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport certain migrants. »
« In short, the Government must facilitate the Class’s ability to seek habeas relief to contest their removal under the Act », Judge Boasberg said in the order, filed late Wednesday afternoon. « Exactly what such facilitation must entail will be determined in future proceedings. Although the Court is mindful that such a remedy may implicate sensitive diplomatic or national-security concerns within the exclusive province of the Executive Branch, it also has a constitutional duty to provide a remedy that will « make good the wrong done. »
Notably, the order also includes Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, the Salvadorian migrant and alleged MS-13 member who was deported from Maryland to El Salvador in March in what administration officials have acknowledged was an administrative error. That case alone had touched off a heated court fight, which prompted intervention from the Supreme Court in April.
