A Venezuela woman asylum seeker whom ICE detained and wanted to deport to El Salvador

 

Jeffrey St. Clair>>

+ The ACLU filed a sworn declaration from a Venezuela woman asylum seeker whom ICE detained and wanted to deport to El Salvador under the Alien Enemies Act; she says she overheard ICE officials on the plane to El Salvador conversing about that court ruling ordering them to turn the plane back to the US. ICE defied the court order and renditioned the detainees to El Salvador despite stopping for “hours” to refuel. The Venezuelan asylum seeker was later returned to the Webb Detention Center in Laredo, Texas…

"On Friday, we were told to gather our belongings and put on the bus at Webb [County detention center in Laredo, Texas] and sat in the bus for about 5 minutes and then were taken back to Webb.

Saturday morning, we were again told to gather our belongings and get on the bus. We went to the airport, and eight women were put on the plane with me.

When we got on the plane, there were already over 50 men on the plane. I could see other migrants walking to the plane, but we took off before any additional people boarded. Within a couple of minutes, I overheard two US government officials talking, and they said, “There is an order saying we can’t take off, but we already have.”

I asked where we were going and we were told that we were going to Venezuela. Several other people on the plane told me they were in immigration proceedings and awaiting court hearings in immigration court.

We were not allowed to open our window shades.

We landed somewhere for refueling. We were there for many hours. We were arm and leg shackled the whole time.

We took off again and landed fairly quickly. I was then told we were in El Salvador.

While on the plane the government officials were asking the men to sign a document and they didn’t want to. The government officials were pushing them to sign the document and threatening them. I heard them discussing the documents and they were about the men admitting they were members of TdA.

After we landed but were still on the plane, a woman opened the shade. An officer rushed to close the shade and pulled her down by her shoulders to try and stop her from looking out. The person who pushed her down had HOU-O2 written on his sleeve.

I saw out the window for a minute and I saw men in military uniforms and another plane. I saw men being led off the plane. Since I’ve been back in the US, I have seen news coverage, and the plane I saw looks like the one I’ve seen on TV with migrants from the US being delivered to El Salvador."