Disappeared: U.S. Sends Venezuelan LGBTQ Asylum Seeker to El Salvador's "Guantnamo on Steroids"

[Uncle Joe]

A legal battle is continuing between the Trump administration and a federal judge over the president's invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to expel over 130 immigrants from the United States to a "mega-prison" in El Salvador over claims that they are members of a Venezuelan gang. Margaret Cargioli, an attorney who is representing one of the men, an LGBTQ asylum seeker who did not have a deportation order when he was effectively disappeared by ICE, says the unilateral expulsion of asylum seekers is "extremely unusual and concerning." Cargioli's client "was not deported. He was sent there unlawfully," and his disappearance not only puts his asylum case at risk, but also his life. CECOT, the prison in El Salvador that the Venezuelan nationals were sent to, is infamous for torture and other human rights abuses, while Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele's authoritarian rule has been marked by a long-running suspension of due process rights. Juan Pappier, who has investigated the prison system in El Salvador for Human Rights Watch, says "people who are sent to CECOT will never be allowed out."

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