Lawyers Say New Evidence Challenges Trump on El Salvador Prisons

Source: Bloomberg

July 7, 2025 at 5:33 PM EDT


Lawyers for Venezuelans sent to a prison in El Salvador claim new evidence “contradicts” the US government’s claims that Salvadoran officials, not the Trump administration, have legal authority over the men.

Attorneys on Monday filed a copy of statements that El Salvador submitted to a United Nations human rights office in April, stating that “the jurisdiction and legal responsibility” for detainees “lie exclusively” with the United States under agreements between the two countries.

The US government, however, has repeatedly insisted that it had no control over the Venezuelan prisoners once they were turned over to El Salvador. That position was backed by a federal judge in Washington, who ruled in June that the detainees were no longer in the “constructive custody” of the US.

“The documents filed with the court today show that the administration has not been honest with the court or the American people,” Skye Perryman, president of Democracy Forward, one of the groups representing the Venezuelans, said in a statement. The case is one of the highest-profile challenges to the Trump Administration’s crackdown on immigration.

Read more: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2025-07-07/lawyers-say-new-evidence-challenges-trump-on-el-salvador-prisons