BOSTON: A federal judge ordered the Trump administration on Wednesday to ensure migrants held at Guantanamo Bay are given a chance to raise any concerns about their safety before deporting them to El Salvador or countries other than their places of origin.

US District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston issued the order after immigrant rights advocates argued the administration had violated a court order he issued by flying four Venezuelans held at the US naval base in Cuba to El Salvador on a flight conducted by the US Department of Defence.

Murphy in late March had issued a temporary restraining order, which he later extended into an injunction, restricting the Department of Homeland Security’s ability to rapidly deport migrants to countries other than their own without allowing them to first raise concerns about their safety or potential torture.

Republican President Donald Trump’s administration argued it did not violate the judge’s order as it only applied to the Homeland Security Department, which oversees US Immigration and Customs Enforcement, not the Defence Department.

The US Department of Justice called three of the four migrants members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua and said the Department of Defence removed them to El Salvador without the knowledge or direction of the Homeland Security Department.

Published in Dawn, May 1st, 2025