A number of Venezuelan men deported from the US to El Salvador and its notorious CECOT prison are suing the airlines that took them there.
A federal lawsuit filed this week accuses CSI Aviation and Global X of “violating the Venezuelans’ civil rights, false imprisonment, intentional infliction of emotional distress, negligence and other violations,” according to The Guardian.
The lawsuit accuses the airlines of violating US and international law.
The flights took place last March, when the Trump administration removed more than 230 Venezuelan men held in US custody. They were flown to El Salvador, where they were detained for four months.
President Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to expel the men as “alien enemies” and said Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, who now faces trail in the US, had instructed them and members of the gang Tren de Aragua to “invade” the US.
The men claim they were tortured and that the airlines had reasonable knowledge that they would be tortured at their destination.
“Despite knowing that El Salvador’s Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (‘CECOT’) mega-prison was a notorious blacksite, from which no detainee had ever left alive, Defendants went to great lengths to transport Plaintiffs and Class Members there, in concert with the US government, in flagrant violation of U.S. and international law,” the lawsuit states.
“Defendants evaded or ignored judicial oversight and the foreseeable risk of torture and successfully delivered Plaintiffs and the Class to El Salvador for imprisonment at CECOT.”
The Guardian notes the lawsuit is “one of the latest attempts by rights groups to hold private contractors accountable for their role in alleged abuses stemming from the administration’s aggressive anti-immigrant crackdown.”
“Many people might not be aware of the degree to which private companies are intertwined with the human rights abuses occurring under the Trump administration through the detention and unlawful deportation schemes that are occurring,” said Anthony Enriquez, the vice-president of advocacy and litigation for the Kennedy Human Rights Center.
4 Responses
The article states, “A number of Venezuelan men deported…” We are to presume they entered the US illegally, correct? The article fails to identify that fact. If so, they received due process and were escorted to the prison of choice for them violating the law. Enter the country legally, don’t do anything illegal and things will be alright.
That’s why the penalty for these scum bags should be to put them down like the rabid dogs they are. They have no civil rights in this country.
Like a metal 55 gallon drum full of rattlesnakes in a sun soaked summer. The hate that radiates is so heavy it could be cut with a knife. God save all of us if ever someone breaks them out of that prison.
El Salv is humane in their treatment of these animals.