Venezuelans say ICE officers ‘beat’ them to force them off deportation plane in El Salvador

Venezuelans who were forcibly deported to a terrorist prison in El Salvador earlier this year have now formally accused ICE officers of beating them to make them get off the airplane.

In court declarations last week, four migrants recounted their deportation journey and arrival in El Salvador, where they would be taken to CECOT, that country’s terrorist prison, to be held under a deal struck by the Trump administration.

One man said they saw the first migrants taken off the plane being “beaten” by Salvadoran authorities, which made the others refuse to leave the plane.

“The ICE officials told us that, if we did not get off the plane, they would force us off. Then they started to beat us and punch us to make us get out. They even choked one of the women on the plane who was crying out for them to stop hitting us,” said the Venezuelan, whose name was redacted in the court document.

Another migrant, in a separate court filing, recalled: “We were terrified of being detained at CECOT, so we refused to get off the plane. The ICE officials on the plane beat us and forced us off the plane.”

A third migrant said the American officers on the plane “physically forced us out,” though that person did not claim any beating.

Venezuelans had previously said they were beaten by Salvadoran officers at CECOT, but the new filings claim U.S. officers also engaged in violence.

U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement referred questions about the claims to Homeland Security, which denied the allegations as “absurd and false.”

“This is yet another attempt to vilify ICE officers, who are facing a 1000% increase in assaults against them but still show up to work every day to make America safe again,” DHS spokeswoman Tricia McLaughlin said. “Nobody should be fooled by it.”

Ms. McLaughlin said transferring detainees “is dangerous by nature,” and officers have to face being outnumbered.

“In this case, the aliens were not just violent criminals but foreign terrorists. ICE officers’ job is to ensure a safe and orderly transfer for all parties involved, and they conduct themselves with excellence and professionalism in doing so,” she said.

The new claims come as ICE is facing allegations in the U.S. of a heavy-handed approach to carrying out President Trump’s deportation orders.

Several federal district courts have ruled that ICE was casting too broad a net in its arrests.

The administration has challenged those claims, and the Supreme Court, in one of the cases, sided with the administration.

The Venezuelans’ court filings are part of the broader case involving the deportation of several hundred Venezuelans in March using the Alien Enemies Act.

Mr. Trump identified them all as members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuela-based gang with international reach, and had them flown to El Salvador, where the U.S. paid for them to be kept at CECOT.

After several months in prison, the migrants were handed over from El Salvador to Venezuela, which flew them home.

The case was the first big deportation fight of the new Trump administration.

Judge James Boasberg, an Obama appointee, had tried to order the planes turned around, but the administration continued the flights anyway.

Among the deportees was Kilmar Abrego Garcia, a Salvadoran illegal immigrant who was returned to the U.S. and is still battling his cases in multiple federal courts.

Now Judge Boasberg is being asked to give the Venezuelans a chance to argue for their return to the U.S.

In the court filings, the migrants said they live under fear in Venezuela, where they say they were wrongly labeled TdA members by the U.S. government and also have to live with implied threats from the Venezuelan government itself.

One of those who claimed to have been beaten by ICE officers on the plane said he was threatened with being accused as a “traitor” for having left to go to the U.S. But he said if he tries to go to another country, he fears being treated as a terrorist, thanks to the U.S. government’s designation of TdA as a terrorist organization.

“It is very important for me to clear my name. I’m not guilty of what the United States accused me of,” he told Judge Boasberg in the filing. “I would like the opportunity to prove that to a judge in the United States.”

Another said he has struggled to get a job because of Mr. Trump’s TdA claims.

“I want to clear my name,” he said. “I would also like to return to the United States to continue my asylum claim.”