U.S. District Judge James Boasberg on Monday ordered the Trump administration to submit plans to return or provide hearings to more than 200 immigrants who were deported to El Salvador’s CECOT megaprison in March.
Boasberg has certified a group representing all immigrants sent to prison and says the government must submit its plans to allow them to challenge their designation under the Alien Enemies Act by Jan. 5.
In March, the Trump administration invoked the The AEA (an 18th century wartime authority used to expel non-citizens with little or no due process) to deport two planeloads of suspected immigrant gang members to El Salvador prison, arguing that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is a “hybrid criminal state” that is invading the United States.
Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order and ordered the planes to be returned, but Justice Department lawyers said their oral instructions ordering the flight to be returned were flawed and that the deportations proceeded as planned.
Boasberg later sought contempt procedure against the government for willfully defying its order, but earlier this month a federal appeals court granted the Justice Department an emergency stay of those proceedings.
The more than 200 migrants who were deported to CECOT were sent to Venezuela in July in a prisoner exchange.
Boasberg, in his order Monday, said the U.S. government “maintained constructive custody” over the migrants while they were imprisoned at CECOT, and that their right to due process was violated when the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act to consider them members of the Aragua Train without allowing them to challenge the designation.
Guards escort the inmates at CECOT, March 16, 2025 in Tecoluca, El Salvador.
Salvadoran government via Getty Images
“In granting the motion, this Court declares that the plaintiffs should not have been removed in the manner in which they were, with virtually no notice and no opportunity to challenge the basis for their removal, in clear violation of their due process rights,” the judge wrote.
Boasberg sided with lawyers who said El Salvador imprisoned the men at the behest of the United States and partly in exchange for $4.7 million.
The ruling paves the way for all migrants sent to CECOT to challenge their designation as enemy aliens and members of the Aragua Train. Judge Boasberg ordered the government to submit plans to give the men “a meaningful opportunity to challenge their designation,” either by facilitating their return to the United States or allowing them to have hearings.
“In theory, the Government could also offer plaintiffs a hearing without returning them to the United States, as long as such a hearing satisfies the requirements of due process,” he wrote.
ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt, who is leading the lawsuit against the AEA deportations, said the men will finally get due process.
“The men suffered immeasurable abuse, but now they will finally get the due process that the Trump administration indisputably denied them,” Gelernt said.
Jerce Reyes Barrios, a professional soccer player and youth coach who was sent to CECOT despite his attorney’s sworn statement that he had no criminal record in Venezuela or the United States, told ABC News on Monday that news of the judge’s order hit him “like a bucket of cold water.”
But while many former CECOT detainees could try to return to the United States, Reyes Barrios said he is not prepared to try to return because of the trauma he continues to experience.
“I have focused my time on taking care of my daughters, training young children, everything to avoid those thoughts. At night sometimes I have nightmares and I feel like I am still in the CECOT,” Reyes Barrios, who returned to his Venezuelan hometown in July, told ABC News in Spanish on Monday. “Right now I’m not ready to decide if I want to fight this case.”
His attorney Linette Tobin claimed Barrios was falsely accused in part because of his tattoos, which showed a crown atop a soccer ball with a rosary and the word “God.” Reyes Barrios said the tattoo was inspired by the logo of the Real Madrid soccer team.
