Trump's deportations may face challenge as prison punishment without a trial

[Eugene]

Source: Los Angeles Times

Trump's deportations may face challenge as prison punishment without a trial

David G. Savage
Fri, April 25, 2025 at 6:00 AM EDT 5 min read

President Trump has pressed for quickly deporting hundreds of Venezuelan and Salvadoran men who are said to belong to a foreign crime gang.

Those deportations have been challenged as illegal — and last week, blocked by the Supreme Court — if the detained men are not given a hearing to argue they are not gang members.

But Trump's deportations are unusual and may face a legal challenge for a different reason. Most of the deported men will not be sent back to their home country but instead to a maximum security prison in El Salvador where they can be held indefinitely.

Sending someone to prison "constitutes punishment," says UCLA law professor Ahilan Arulanantham. Before imprisoning people, including noncitizens, the government is required under the Constitution to charge the defendants with a crime and to prove their guilt in a jury trial, he said.

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Read more: https://www.yahoo.com/news/trumps-deportations-may-face-challenge-100001688.html

[Irish_Dem]

1. Why not just send them back to their home countries? Cheaper and easier than prison.

[Eugene]

3. Because cruelty is the point?

Colombia wound up on Dump's shit list because they wanted their returnees to be treated with dignity, not in chains. They even chartered the aircraft.

Venezuela call it human trafficking of its nationals.

And of course, this is all about a phony invasion narrative that designates Venezuelans, Salvadoreans and soon Haitians as unlawful combatants.

It must not be forgotten that most of the "bad hombres" sent to CECOT have no criminal records.

[Irish_Dem]

4. Yep just sending them home lacks the drama and cruelty Trump loves.

[bucolic_frolic]

2. "where they can be held indefinitely" and US Taxpayers are paying to imprison them.

The Trump administration is paying foreign governments to hold them. Active participant, and hiring an agent to do so.