US judge says Venezuelans can challenge jailing in El Salvador

Zoe Tillman, Bloomberg News on Jun 4, 2025

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WASHINGTON — A U.S. judge has ruled that the Trump administration must find a way to give Venezuelans sent to a notorious prison in El Salvador under a wartime powers law an opportunity to challenge their removal.

U.S. District Judge James Boasberg in Washington found that the challengers were likely to win their claim that U.S. officials sent migrants to the detention facility known as CECOT without giving them enough notice and a chance to object.

The judge said in his Wednesday decision he would decide later how exactly the administration now must provide that opportunity to the Venezuelans.

“Absent this relief, the government could snatch anyone off the street, turn him over to a foreign country, and then effectively foreclose any corrective course of action,” the judge wrote.

Boasberg approved the case as a class action covering more than 100 Venezuelans that the Trump administration alleged were gang members and sent to Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo in mid-March. President Donald Trump issued an order authorizing use of the Alien Enemies Act for deportations.

The judge gave the administration one week to tell him how they would comply with his order.

The case is J.G.G. v. Trump, 25-cv-766, US District Court, District of Columbia.