By Fatma Zehra Solmaz
ISTANBUL (AA) - Sworn declarations filed on Monday reveal that eight women, initially deported to El Salvador alongside alleged Venezuelan gang members, were later returned to the United States.
One of the women, identified as S.Z.F.R., stated in her declaration that she had been detained at a facility in El Paso, Texas, before being deported to El Salvador on Saturday along with seven other Venezuelan women, ABC News reported.
"I asked where we were going, and we were told that we were going to Venezuela," she stated in her filing. She also noted that several other individuals on the flight were involved in ongoing immigration proceedings and awaiting court hearings.
S.Z.F.R. further alleged that officials attempted to pressure the detained men into signing "a document they didn't want to." She stated: “The government officials were pushing them to sign the documents and threatening them.” She overheard discussions suggesting that the documents compelled the men to acknowledge ties to Tren de Aragua, the Venezuelan gang whose activities led President Donald Trump to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, expediting their deportation with minimal legal procedures.
At a Monday hearing before the US Court of Appeals for the DC Circuit, an ACLU (American Civil Liberties Union) attorney stated that the organization intends to submit the signed document as evidence.
A temporary court order by US District Judge James Boasberg halted such deportations, prompting an appeal by the Justice Department.
A sworn statement from Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) last week acknowledged that "many" individuals deported under the Alien Enemies Act had no criminal records in the US, with unclear evidence linking them to gangs.
S.Z.F.R. stated in her filing that after arriving in El Salvador, the women remained on the plane while the men were removed.
"The remaining women asked, 'What happens to us?'" she recounted, adding that officials informed them El Salvador’s president would not accept female detainees, and they would be sent back to the US. She was later returned in the middle of the night.
A Nicaraguan migrant on one of the planes said: "I overheard a Salvadoran official tell an ICE officer that the Salvadoran government would not detain someone from another Central American country because of the conflict it would cause," ABC News reported.
He also noted that "they would not receive the females because the prison was not for females, and females were not mentioned in the agreement."
The unnamed migrant described the situation as chaotic, stating that individuals were forcibly removed from the plane in El Salvador.
"Everyone was scared, and some people had to forcibly be removed from the plane," he said.