Senator Chris Van Hollen recently met with Kilmar Abrego Garcia, who was wrongly deported by the Trump administration, in El Salvador. Following this meeting, Senator Van Hollen expressed his support for El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele’s proposal to exchange 252 Venezuelan detainees held in El Salvador for political prisoners in Venezuela. President Bukele suggested the exchange as a way to address the situation of the detained Venezuelans, including journalists, human rights lawyers, and opposition leaders. The proposal would involve releasing these individuals from Venezuela in exchange for the detainees in El Salvador.
President Bukele’s proposal comes after the Trump administration deported over 200 Venezuelans to El Salvador, accusing them of being members of a criminal gang. The U.S. government is currently paying El Salvador to detain these migrants in a high-security facility. The Venezuelan government denies that the deported individuals have any criminal gang affiliations and asserts that they have been convicted of crimes, not political reasons. However, human rights organizations claim that Venezuela has more than 800 political prisoners.
In response to the situation, the U.S. Supreme Court has temporarily blocked the Trump administration from deporting another group of Venezuelan migrants accused of gang ties under a wartime law. The court issued a stay after the ACLU intervened on behalf of the migrants. The Trump administration has indicated it will review the court’s decision but remains committed to its immigration policies.
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