Lawyers Say They Can’t Get Clients Out Of El Salvador | EUROtoday

Henrry Jose Albornoz Quintero was scheduled to attend an immigration courtroom listening to in El Paso Thursday. He didn’t. The immigration decide presiding over his case was not glad.

“He just disappeared? What happened?”

The Trump administration lawyer both couldn’t say — or wouldn’t.

“All I can disclose at the moment is that he’s no longer in ICE custody,” the lawyer mentioned, in keeping with the notes of Albornoz Quintero’s legal professional, who attended the listening to.

The legal professional believes his consumer is languishing at Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), the Salvadoran mega-prison the place the United States despatched tons of of migrants final month. The Trump administration has despatched some folks to the jail beneath the Alien Enemies Act, a hardly ever used wartime energy; Trump claims alleged Tren de Aragua gang members are the equal to an invading military.

Others have been despatched to CECOT after receiving customary deportation orders from immigration judges.

Albornoz Quintero’s legal professional John Dutton believes the federal government has eliminated him to CECOT as an “alien enemy” on the premise of his tattoos alone, a troubling pattern that different attorneys and relations of detainees have flagged as nicely.

The Trump administration has not offered any updates on Albornoz Quintero’s standing, Dutton instructed HuffPost. But Albornoz Quintero’s identify is amongst these on a authorities record of Venezuelan detainees despatched to El Salvador that was printed by CBS News.

“He doesn’t even know that his child’s been born,” Dutton mentioned of Albornoz Quintero, whose spouse gave delivery just a few days in the past within the U.S. “His wife is doing all this on her own in a foreign country, doesn’t speak the language, doesn’t have any family here. She’s struggling.”

On Thursday, the decide in Albornoz Quintero’s case burdened that he didn’t blame the federal government legal professional personally for the lack of understanding about Albornoz Quintero’s whereabouts. But he referred to as the state of affairs “ridiculous,” in keeping with Dutton’s notes and mentioned, “This is really irritating me.” The authorities legal professional mentioned he might “elevate” the courtroom’s request for extra data. And he mentioned he would search a “continuance” of the case, successfully kicking the can down the street. The listening to ended.

Ever because the Trump administration shipped tons of of migrants to CECOT, weird episodes like Albornoz Quintero’s listening to Thursday aren’t uncommon; the identical factor performed out in a listening to for Albornoz Quintero earlier this month, and different attorneys who spoke to HuffPost described comparable scenes. And with the federal government refusing to even acknowledge what’s occurred to their purchasers, attorneys coping with CECOT circumstances have expressed frustration and despair at what they see as the dearth of authorized choices to get their purchasers out of El Salvador.

The U.S. State Department has for years mentioned the Central American nation is stricken by human rights considerations, together with credible stories of “unlawful or arbitrary killings; enforced disappearance; torture or cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment or punishment by security forces,” and “harsh and life-threatening prison conditions.”

The truth sample of the detainees despatched to El Salvador “fits every definition of an enforced disappearance under international law,” mentioned Denise L. Gilman, who co-directs the immigration clinic on the University of Texas School of Law. Gilman mentioned the outline of the listening to Thursday “was exactly what I’ve heard from others about what’s happening.”

“Black site” isn’t a authorized time period, however “I would call this a black site, absolutely,” she added of CECOT.

“It’s a place where people are being held in torturous conditions without any clear legal authority for their detention, and also without any structure or proceeding or authority charged with looking at the situation,” Gilman mentioned.

Now, weeks after the Trump administration arguably defied a decide’s order and flew a number of planeloads of detainees to El Salvador — the place a video launched by the nation’s president confirmed them being manhandled and having their heads shaved at CECOT — their future is unsure.

“The system’s not really designed for the executive branch to just flout the laws,” mentioned legal professional Joseph Giardina, whose consumer Frizgeralth de Jesus Cornejo Pulgar is believed to be in CECOT.

Cornejo Pulgar got here into the United States legally, making an appointment on the federal government’s since-discontinued CBP One app, Giardina instructed HuffPost. He doesn’t have any felony historical past, and his obvious expulsion to CECOT is “obviously based on tattoos,” Giardina mentioned.

At Cornejo Pulgar’s personal immigration courtroom listening to Thursday, “the government didn’t know anything, they certainly weren’t prepared to do anything. They didn’t say anything. They asked for a continuance,” Giardina mentioned. His consumer wasn’t there, and authorities attorneys equally would solely say “your client is not in ICE custody,” he recalled.

“No one wants to defend an indefensible position,” Giardina mentioned. “And obviously, there’s pending litigation. So everyone’s terrified, no one wants to lose their job on [the government’s] end, so they’re just giving the company line: ‘Not in ICE custody, that’s all we’re willing to confirm.’”

“It’s fucking absurd,” he added.

Attorneys like Giardina and Dutton, the latter of whom mentioned the Trump administration was finishing up “government-sponsored kidnapping,” don’t see many viable choices to get their purchasers out of one of many world’s most infamous prisons, regardless that they’ve by no means been convicted of against the law, and regardless that the United States authorities says it paid thousands and thousands of {dollars} for the detention house.

The Supreme Court ordered Thursday that the Trump administration work to facilitate the return to the U.S. of 1 man, Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration has admitted mustn’t have been despatched to El Salvador. But even in that case, the federal government appears to be dragging its ft, saying in a submitting Friday that “Foreign affairs cannot operate on judicial timelines.” In courtroom Friday, Deputy Assistant Attorney General Drew Ensign mentioned he didn’t have any data to supply the courtroom on Abrego Garcia’s whereabouts and that the administration was “not yet prepared” to share data on something it had performed to facilitate his launch.

Separately, the excessive courtroom has briefly allowed Trump to renew Alien Enemies Act expulsions, although the courtroom mentioned folks focused beneath the president’s declaration have a slender proper to make a habeas corpus declare in a conservative Texas courtroom — a difficult argument in a difficult venue.

Habeas petitions, which require authorities to justify an individual’s detention, typically depend upon a given defendant being bodily current in a given judicial district. What about all these already in CECOT? No courtroom has addressed the problem head-on.

“I don’t know exactly what needs to happen. The problem is, [the Supreme Court didn’t] address what happened to the people that already got deported … What about the toothpaste that’s already out of the tube?” Giardina requested.

“Habeas petitions go to the federal district courts where somebody is housed, or where they’re physically located,” Giardina mentioned. “Convincing a district court [judge] in Texas that he still has jurisdiction over a habeas claim for a body that’s no longer in his jurisdiction — probably going to be a tall order. The argument would be that he was in your jurisdiction when his rights were violated, but again, never happened before.”

The legal professional mentioned “higher level action” was wanted, doubtlessly together with video hearings in El Salvador. But the following steps are removed from clear.

“Even if we’re successful in a habeas petition, which will be the next step, what’s the guarantee that they can come back?” Dutton mentioned.

“You’d think that if the government is paying El Salvador to keep these people, they still have some control over their ability to return them. But I don’t know.”

The issues with CECOT don’t cease with folks accused by the Trump administration of being “alien enemies.” In addition to that group, over 100 folks have been despatched to CECOT in the midst of the usual deportation course of. That means an immigration decide within the United States deemed them “removable,” or deportable. While some deportees have been Salvadoran, others weren’t — and have been despatched to the nation nonetheless.

One of these folks is believed to be Victor Andres Ortega Burbano, a 24-year-old Venezuelan citizen with muscular dystrophy affecting his proper arm. Ortega Burbano and his spouse arrived within the United States in 2022, and he was finally granted “temporary protected status” final 12 months. A number of months later, an immigration decide ordered him eliminated to Venezuela, in keeping with a courtroom declaration filed by Michelle Brané of Together & Free, a nonprofit that helps households looking for asylum within the United States. The group has arrange a WhatsApp hotline for the relations of Venezuelans believed to have been despatched to El Salvador.

After receiving his removing order, Ortega Burbano was launched from immigration detention. Months later, on March 11, he was surrounded by ICE brokers and arrested whereas checking his mailbox. After being taken to an ICE detention facility in Texas for a pair weeks, he instructed his spouse over the telephone on March 28 that he had been knowledgeable by ICE brokers that he was to be deported to Venezuela, in keeping with the declaration. Instead, he went to Guantánamo Bay. Then, “on March 31, 2025, his family learned that he was on the March 30 flight to El Salvador through a social media post,” the declaration mentioned.

Brané mentioned CECOT was “basically known as a black hole.” She frightened in regards to the lack of medical look after folks with preexisting situations like Ortega Burbano.

“Even if they had a removal order, sending you to a prison where you’re going to die in El Salvador is insane,” mentioned Brané, who was beforehand the immigration detention ombudsman on the Department of Homeland Security through the Biden administration, and previous to that, the manager director of the division’s Family Reunification Task Force.

Together & Free has tracked slightly below 100 of the individuals who have been despatched to El Salvador, round half of whom had removing orders, Brané mentioned.

“I don’t think anybody, unless they were told at the very last minute, was told they were going to El Salvador,” she mentioned.

That’s an necessary level, as a result of a federal district courtroom in Boston is presently dealing with a case regarding the deportation of individuals to so-called “third countries.” On March 29, a federal decide paused all third-country removals nationwide except detainees had obtained written discover and a chance to pursue a authorized case based mostly on their concern of going to a given nation.

The subsequent day, March 30, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem wrote in a memo that the DHS “third country removal” coverage entails receiving “diplomatic assurances that aliens removed from the United States will not be persecuted or tortured.” If such assurances are usually not obtained — or if the State Department doesn’t discover them to be “credible” — solely then should DHS inform somebody of the nation to which they’re being eliminated, in keeping with the coverage. What’s extra, beneath the coverage, immigration officers don’t ask if somebody has a concern of being despatched to a given nation. Rather, they have to convey up that concern on their very own accord in an effort to be screened for protections beneath the Convention Against Torture.

On March 31, Secretary of State Marco Rubio introduced “a successful counter-terrorism operation with our allies in El Salvador” concentrating on 17 individuals who he referred to as “violent criminals from the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 organizations, including murderers and rapists.” And Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele printed a video exhibiting a number of detainees being taken off of a airplane in El Salvador and to CECOT the evening prior, arms twisted behind their backs.

The timeline Brané and others have laid out suggests the administration could have violated the decide in Boston’s restraining order with the newest El Salvador flight. On Monday, an appeals courtroom declined the Trump administration’s request to remain the district courtroom’s restraining order, writing that the administration had “made a moving target of their removal policy.”

The Trump administration didn’t reply an in depth record of questions for this story.

“Nothing about what the administration is doing is in compliance with U.S. statute, with international obligations, or any other legal norm,” mentioned Gilman, of the immigration clinic on the University of Texas School of Law.

“It’s a new paradigm of brute authority.”