U.S. District Judge Judge James Boasberg on Thursday ordered the Trump administration to facilitate the return of some of the Venezuelan men whom it wrongfully sent to a prison in El Salvador without affording them due process rights.
With the new ruling, the men who currently reside outside of Venezuela would have the opportunity to prove their innocence after President Donald Trump claimed they were members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang. The Trump administration was even ordered to pay for their flights back to the U.S.
However, it’s not that simple.
Speaking to Daily Kos, three of the men who were wrongfully imprisoned told us that despite the offer, they’re not going to step foot back in the U.S. while Trump is still in office.
“I would not want to return at this moment since we have no guarantees of being able to see our cases legally while free,” one former inmate told Daily Kos via text message. The identities of these men have been protected due to their ongoing legal cases and to not impact any future desire to return to the U.S.
Despite the small victory in court, the Venezuelan men who do return will be detained upon reentry into the U.S. Because of this, one man told us, the risk isn’t worth it.
The Terrorism Confinement Center in Tecoluca, El Salvador, shown in 2023.
“Our human rights must be respected after having gone through a series of physical and psychological aggressions,” he said, referring to the months of alleged torture that took place in El Salvador’s Terrorism Confinement Center, commonly known as CECOT. Like multiple Venezuelan men who left CECOT, he also shared stories of alleged abuse and sexual assault.
“That is why some of us will not be able to return to the country, for fear that all our human rights will be violated again and that we will end up in a detention center. If I had the guarantee of being free to see my case through and fight day by day, I would go and fight alongside every American in support of the nation,” he said.
Another young man told Daily Kos that he has no interest in repeating what previously happened to him. Despite claiming to have entered the U.S. legally, he was still sent to CECOT and labeled a criminal, he told us.
“So, if we consider the present, nothing guarantees that the same thing won’t happen again, that they’ll be sent there to continue their process and history will repeat itself,” he said via text message. “[The U.S.] government has already shown us that they give us no guarantees at all,” he added.
But this overarching fear doesn’t come as a surprise given the anti-immigrant stance Trump and his administration have staked out. From “Protect Your Homeland” posts on social media to covering the White House lawn with mugshots of immigrants, federal officials are stoking racist fears. They also consistently use the phrase “illegal aliens” to describe undocumented immigrants, setting a tone of danger.
The Trump administration’s hostile posturing against immigrants has helped to normalize the violent behavior those immigrants endure both on the streets and in federal detention. At least 31 people died in Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s custody in 2025—a number that trumps anything seen in the past two decades. It’s no wonder public sentiment is turning against ICE.
When Daily Kos asked these men whether they would consider returning to the U.S. if they were given the opportunity under a different presidency, the answers varied.
One man said he would return, adding that he believes that a Democratic president would “respect each person’s human rights and treat everyone equally as the Constitution mandates.”
However, another of the men told us that regardless of who is in power, he’s afraid to go back and be a target because of his nationality and his tattoos.
