Overview
- Venezuela’s attorney general has launched a crimes-against-humanity investigation targeting President Nayib Bukele and other Salvadoran officials over the treatment of 252 Venezuelan migrants sent to CECOT under the Alien Enemies Act.
- Returned detainees have provided detailed accounts of beatings, sexual abuse, deprivation of sunlight and rotten food during four months at CECOT before their release in a prisoner‐exchange deal.
- Human Rights Watch and multiple detainee testimonies have documented overcrowding, medical neglect, forced eating from the floor and constant shackling at U.S. ICE centers, notably Florida’s “Alligator Alcatraz.”
- Judge Stephanie Gallagher signaled possible contempt proceedings after the administration failed to return a migrant known as “Cristian,” and Judge Paula Xinis ordered three business days’ notice before ICE can detain Kilmar Abrego Garcia post-release.
- Lawyers for wrongfully deported migrants are seeking criminal contempt charges for administration non-compliance while DHS has publicly denied any abuse claims in either U.S. or Salvadoran facilities.