Venezuelan deportee may return to US, but fears repeat order: ‘I’m still not over that nightmare’ | American immigration

A US federal judge’s order that some of the Venezuelan men sent by the Trump administration to a notorious prison in El Salvador should be allowed to return to the United States to fight their cases was met with hope and a sense of vindication – but also fear – by one of the sportsmen.

US District Judge James Boasberg rule Thursday in Washington DC that the Trump administration should facilitate the return of sports that are currently in countries abroad Venezuelaand says they should be given the opportunity to seek the due process they were denied after being illegal expelled from the US last March.

Boasberg added that the US government should cover the travel costs of those who want to come to the US to argue their case immigration cases.

Luis Muñoz Pinto (27) is one of the men affected and he spoke exclusively to the Guardian on Thursday from Bogotá, the capital of Colombia, where he has lived since being released from detention in El Salvador.

“I would like to go back to the US to defend myself in court and prove that I am not a member of the Tren de Aragua (gang) – but what happens if they detain me and I have to live another nightmare?” Muñoz Pinto said.

He has no criminal record in any country. An engineering student in Venezuela, he fled in 2024 after being beaten by the police while protesting against the dictatorship there, first to Colombia and then north. He had an appointment in the US to seek asylum under the Biden administration, but was instead arrested and accused of being a member of the dangerous Venezuelan criminal group. Aragua Train gang because he had a few tattoos, despite no evidence of current gang connections.

The judge acknowledged that if either man returned to the US to argue in court, it was his understanding that “they will be detained upon arrival.”

Muñoz Pinto said: “Do you have any idea what my family went through after I found out I was sent to that prison in El Salvador? I went from a dream to work and supporting my family to being humiliated by guards hitting me in the face and all over my body.”

On the night of Saturday March 15 last year, the Trump administration suddenly deported more than 250 Venezuelan men to El Salvador, defy a court block and ordered that any such flights have to turn around.

Images then emerged of the handcuffed men being held by baton-wielding Salvadoran police, before their heads were shaved and imprisoned to the infamous Cecot mega-prison. Former detainees said they were told they would die there, and had no external communication with lawyers or family. Then last July they were sent back to Venezuela in a US broker prisoner swap.

On Thursday, Boasberg told the Trump administration to prioritize sports currently living in third countries, but also explained “the feasibility of returning claimants who are still in Venezuela,” while the relationship between the US and Venezuela remains difficult.

A spokeswoman for the White House, Abigail Jackson, blasted Boasberg’s ruling and said in a statement that it was “an absurd, illegal decision by a far-left judicial activist who is trying to undermine the president’s legal authority to carry out deportations.”

She added: “Americans elected President Trump based on his promise to deport criminal illegal aliens and make America safe again. Boasberg has no right to overturn the will of the American people, and that will not be the final say on the matter.”

Lee Gelernt, the lead ACLU attorney on the case, said he was aware of only a small group of sports people living outside of Venezuela.

Boasberg’s order of principle applies to the 137 men deported to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act invoked by Donald Trump, when the US president made an unprecedented claim that the US was being “invaded” by gang members said to have ties to the Venezuelan state. The others who were sent to Cecot last year were regularly deported American immigration law and is not covered by the present case.

“It’s worth emphasizing that this situation would never have arisen if the government had simply granted plaintiffs their constitutional rights before initially deporting them,” Boasberg said Thursday.

However, he added that the number of men who might want to return to the US “would probably be very small if not zero.”

Muñoz Pinto is torn.

“I know Trump deported me to Cecot and I’m still not over that nightmare, but the US is still the land of opportunity,” he said.

He was deported under the Alien Enemies Act, he said, a fact the Guardian verified through sources familiar with the matter, who were not authorized to speak publicly on the matter.

Before Boasberg’s latest order, the ACLU argued in court that the men should have the right to either return to the US or have a remote hearing to challenge their deportation.

In January, lawyers for US Secretary of State Marco Rubio argued in a court submission that returning the 137 men to the US would “risk material harm to US foreign policy interests in Venezuela.”

Even remote hearings, lawyers for Rubio added, “also carry a serious risk of intentional interference by anti-American elements in Venezuela that would undermine the interests of justice.”

human rights investigators found that Cecot guards dished out blows, torture, denial of food and alleged sexual assault. Lawyers for some of the Venezuelans said they hardened “state-sanctioned torture.”

El Salvador’s government makes no effort to publicly refute allegations of violence and deprivation amounts to torture. the president, Nayib Bukelerespond sarcastic to allegations of cruelty at Cecot made by Hillary Clinton last year. Some online influencers are invited in to make videos of the difficult conditions.

Before Boasberg’s latest ruling, Muñoz Pinto also spoke personally to the Guardian in Bogotá in his first non-TV interview. He was briefly featured on CBS’s 60 Minutes program, which aired in the US last month.

Muñoz Pinto recounted upon their arrival at Cecot: “Three guards threw me to the ground and kicked me in the face so badly that it caused my nose to bleed and all my gums also bled.”

He added: “I started crying because I didn’t know what to do, I tried to be a good man since I was little, I went to college, I tried to help my parents, who are still sick in Venezuela, and then I was in the worst prison on the whole planet and I didn’t commit a crime.”

Old friends in Colombia helped him find work delivering food across Bogotá, arguing that it was a better opportunity to support his family financially than he could find in Venezuela.

Muñoz Pinto said: “This court decision is devastating because I want to go back (to the US), yes, but why do they want to detain me again? How many months this time? I’m not sure if I can do it again.”

Additional reporting by the Associated Press