Ten Americans and U.S. permanent residents who had been seized by the Venezuelan authorities and held as bargaining chips were freed Friday in exchange for the release of more than 250 Venezuelan migrants whom the Trump administration sent to a prison in El Salvador.
The release of the Americans and permanent residents was described by the State Department, while the release of the Venezuelans was announced by the president of El Salvador, Nayib Bukele, on X.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a statement that the U.S. citizens and permanent residents had been arrested and jailed in Venezuela “without proper due process” and called for the “restoration of democracy in Venezuela.”
The capture and imprisonment of the Americans had been part of the Venezuelan government’s efforts to gain an upper hand in negotiations with the Trump administration, while the detention of the Venezuelans in El Salvador played a high-profile role in President Trump’s promise to deport millions of immigrants.
The president had invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime power, to detain and expel many of the migrants sent to El Salvador. This set off a legal battle, with critics accusing Mr. Trump of ignoring the law’s intent to fulfill a campaign promise.
The Trump administration has accused the men it sent to El Salvador — 252 people in all — of being dangerous criminals and members of a Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, though it has provided little evidence to back this up. Their lawyers say the men were summarily deported from the United States without due process.
The U.S. government sent the men to a maximum-security prison in El Salvador in March, along with around two dozen Salvadorans, including Kilmar Abrego García, a man U.S. officials later admitted had been mistakenly deported.
