UN Experts Slam Trump for Migrant Due Process Violations

UN experts condemned the US government because it failed to provide fair legal process to more than 250 Venezuelan and Salvadoran immigrants sent to Salvadoran detention facilities with unacceptable living conditions.

The Trump administration used the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to procure millions from El Salvador for detaining migrants who were classified as criminals and gang members in a facility where documented human rights violations occur. The UN Human Rights Council experts established that the U.S. government violated international human rights law through improper Act implementation which resulted in deportation of individuals without fair proceedings. Several experts confirmed that most individuals deported by the Trump administration who were charged with Tren de Aragua connections did not belong to the gang organization thus excluding them from fair judicial processes or independent oversight leading to wrongful expulsions.

The deal between Trump and Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele is a "blatant violation of international human rights obligations", groups including the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) said in a joint letter to UN chief Antonio Guterres on Tuesday.

A US Supreme Court order to block Trump administration decryption of the Act failed to deter El Salvador from detaining deportees in CECOT and receiving $6 million in return. The UN special rapporteur on torture Alice Jill Edwards warned about the deportees being held on dark detention sites by El Salvador.

“This prison in particular may become the next Guantanamo-like holding station. El Salvador's prisons are quite well known for torture and ill treatment, inter-prisoner violence and there have been reports of suspicious deaths. Holding anybody in metal cages in inhumane."

According to their statement these experts expressed their shock at the refusal of both US and El Salvadoran authorities to re-transfer people whom US courts confirmed were subject to wrongdoing.