A Venezuelan woman said Monday that she was also flown to El Salvador on a deportation flight, where men were forced to sign papers admitting to being part of the gang Tren de Aragua (TdA).
The filing, part of a case challenging the Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to remove alleged gang members, gave new insights into the confusion of the flights on March 15, which saw women flown to the Salvadoran prison before officials there turned them away.
“While on the plane the government officials were asking the men to sign a document and they didn’t want to,” wrote the woman, known as S.Z.F.R. “The government officials were pushing them to sign the documents and threatening them. I heard them discussing the documents and they were about the men admitting they were members of TdA.”
Why It Matters
The affidavits filed Monday came as a U.S. District Court judge upheld his restraining order on the Trump administration’s use of the AEA, and the U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington, D.C., also heard arguments on the implementation of the policy—as over 200 alleged TdA members were flown to a high-security Salvadoran prison over a week ago.
What To Know
A Venezuelan woman detained in Texas gave a detailed account of her detention and removal to El Salvador, where she says she witnessed federal agents urging men to confess gang membership under threat.
Her statement was filed as part of ongoing litigation in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia over the legality of recent mass deportations carried out under President Donald Trump‘s invocation of 1798’s AEA.
The woman said she and other women detained in El Paso were transferred to Laredo, Texas, then moved repeatedly over several days. After failed removal attempts on March 13 and 14, she was placed on a plane the morning of March 15 with more than 50 male detainees. Shortly after takeoff, she overheard two U.S. officials talking: “There is an order saying we can’t take off but we already have.”
The flight landed briefly for refueling, and detainees remained shackled by both arms and legs, she said. When it finally landed, she was told they had arrived in El Salvador. There, all the men were removed from the plane, but the women—including S.Z.F.R.—were not.
“I was told that the President of El Salvador would not accept women,” she stated. “I was also told that we were going back to detention in the U.S.”
She also described witnessing force used by U.S. personnel to stop one woman from looking out the window after landing. “An officer rushed to shut the shade and pushed her down by her shoulders to try and stop her,” she said. The officer wore a patch reading “HOU-02.”
‘The Prison Was Not for Females’
A second declaration, submitted alongside S.F.Z.R’s, supports her account. A Nicaraguan man detained in Texas said he was removed from a flight after Salvadoran officials determined he wasn’t Venezuelan.
“I overheard a Salvadoran official tell an ICE officer that the Salvadoran government would not detain someone from another Central American country because of the conflict it would cause,” he wrote.
He added that officials also refused to accept any women, saying, “the prison was not for females and females were not mentioned in the agreement.”
Both declarations suggest that federal officials continued deportation efforts despite a court order halting removals under the proclamation. According to the Venezuelan woman, the government’s awareness of the legal order was clear mid-flight. She and seven other women were ultimately returned to the U.S. on March 16.
“I saw men in military uniforms and another plane. I saw men being led off the plane,” she stated. “Since I’ve been back in the U.S. I have seen news coverage and the plane I saw looks like the one I’ve seen on TV with migrants from the U.S. being delivered to El Salvador.”
What People Are Saying
U.S. Appeals Court Judge Patricia Millett, at a hearing Monday: “There’s no regulations, and nothing was adopted by the agency officials that were administering this. The people weren’t given notice. They weren’t told where they were going. They were given those people on those planes on that Saturday and had no opportunity to file habeas or any type of action to challenge the removal under the AEA.”
Justice Department attorneys, in court filings: “The President’s action is lawful and based upon a long history of using war authorities against organizations connected to foreign states and national security judgments, which are not subject to judicial second guessing.”
What’s Next
Judge James E. Boasberg denied the government’s motion to lift the Temporary Restraining Order blocking deportations under the March 15 Presidential Proclamation, meaning the order remains in effect.
In El Salvador, a team of lawyers hired by the Venezuelan government and representing the families of detained migrants filed a habeas corpus petition with the Supreme Court of Justice, seeking the release of the detainees.
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