According to the Libertarian Cato Institute, dozens of legal immigrants were stripped of their status and imprisoned in El Salvador by the Trump administration.
Shortly after the Trump administration illegally and unconstitutionally transported about 240 Venezuelans to be imprisoned in El Salvador’s horrific “terrorism” prison on March 15, the mens’ names were published by CBS. A CBS investigation found that 75% of those on the list had no criminal record either in the U.S. or abroad.
Cato reviewed the information for 174 of the men for whom some information is publicly available.
The Cato Institute report finds that at least 50 of these men never even violated immigration laws.
“The government calls them all ‘illegal aliens.’ But of the 90 cases where the method of crossing is known, 50 men report that they came legally to the United States, with advanced US government permission, at an official border crossing point,” the report released on Monday states.
Most, at least 42, were labeled as gang members primarily based on their tattoos, which Venezuelan gangs do not use to identify members and are not reliable indicators of gang membership.
Of the 50 legal men, 21 were allowed into the country after presenting at a port of entry, and 24 were paroled into the country. Four came as refugees, and one initially came on a tourist visa.
- The men were workers—construction laborers, pipe installers, cooks, delivery drivers, a soccer coach, a makeup artist, a mechanic, a veterinarian, a musician, and an entrepreneur.
- The majority were fathers, collectively with 44 children.
Not only did the U.S. government deny these men due process, they denied their attorneys, families, and the public any information about what they did to deserve imprisonment.
