Report: 50 Venezuelans Sent to Salvadoran Prison Entered the U.S. Legally, Contrary to White House Claims
The Trump administration insists that the Venezuelan men it sent to a notoriously brutal prison in El Salvador were all “illegal aliens” connected to a violent gang, but at least 50 of them entered the country legally, according to a new report by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank.
David J. Bier, director of immigration policy at the Cato Institute, tried to gather information on 238 Venezuelan men identified by CBS News who were sent to El Salvador by the Trump administration earlier this year—an incomplete list because the administration has never released a full manifest. Of the 90 cases where Bier could determine a method of entry, 50 men had entered the country legally as refugees, parolees, or temporary visa holders. They were vetted in advance and entered the U.S. through an official border crossing point. That is, they violated no immigration law.
The Cato report follows a CBS News investigation that also found that 75 percent of the men on the list had no criminal record in the U.S. or abroad.
“The basic framework that [Trump administration officials] are putting forward to the public is that these people aren’t entitled to any rights in the United States because they were here illegally, and therefore they can do whatever they want with them,” Bier says. “Obviously, there’s a lot to take issue with that premise to begin with, but our review shows that in fact, they’re doing this to people who did come legally and did follow immigration laws, and so whatever argument they’re making is just not applicable to those people.”
And the number of legal immigrants makes it hard to believe that it was a mistake.
“It’s not just one or two administrative errors, as they like to say,” Bier continues. “This was an intentional campaign that they’ve carried out to include legal immigrants in the group that they sent to El Salvador.”
The Trump administration claims the men are “criminal terrorists” connected to Tren de Aragua (TdA), a violent Venezuelan gang.
Article from Reason.com
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