In a massive prisoner swap deal, the Trump administration got over 200 Venezuelan migrants he deported to an infamous Salvadoran megaprison released in exchange for the Venezuelan government releasing 10 American citizens and permanent residents who were being held captive in that country, reported The New York Times on Friday.
The arrests of foreigners in Venezuela began late last year, according to the report: "Among them was Lucas Hunter, now 37, a U.S. and French citizen who had traveled to Colombia to go kite surfing, according to his family. In an interview, his sister, Sophie Hunter, said he was still in Colombia — close to its border with Venezuela — when he was nabbed by the Venezuelan government in early January. She has been working for his release ever since."
This follows another deal earlier this year that secured the release of six American prisoners from Venezuela after a Trump administration special envoy, Ric Grenell, visited the country.
Trump's deportation of hundreds of Venezuelan migrants to the CECOT prison in El Salvador was massively controversial, with lawyers saying they were not given due process. The administration cited the 1798 Alien Enemies Act for the deportations, and argued these migrants were members of the transnational criminal gang Tren de Aragua, but provided virtually no evidence of this.
Some family members of the migrants argue that the sole evidence against them was that they had a lot of tattoos.
The Supreme Court paused the use of the Alien Enemies Act for deportations earlier this year, but has broadly greenlit many of the administration's other heavy-handed deportation practices.