More than 250 alleged gang members, many of whom were Venezuela, were deported from the United States and flew to a prison in El Salvador from the Trump administration on March 15. Photo -journalist Philip Hollinger documented their arrival, telling ABC News about capturing images for Time magazine.
“I don’t think they were ready for what they saw,” Hollienger said. “This is a major military operation in which they unite the police and the military together for the purposes of security and surround the planes. And to put these guys, it takes about 22 buses for this amount of people to transport them to their Supermax prison.”
Photographer Philip Hollienger talks to ABC News.
ABC News
The administration acknowledged that many detainees did not have a criminal history in the United States, and the lawyers for at least five of them had filed declarations stating that they were never members of the gang.
Hollienger said on Monday that he was struck by the detainees’ appearances, having previously seen “hardened criminals” during prison transfers.
“At the end of the night there was no one who was challenging,” he said, “I want to say, the whole process of reception is so aggressive – for security reasons, you know, security forces will tell you – but it is still very violent.”
According to Holscuer, the detainees arrived at the Central American Nation of commercial charter flights, not military aircraft, so there is no way to chain anyone to a place.
“They are shackled in A, you know, typical ankle tiny, wrists and then connected to a chain,” Hollianger said. “And you know, they are guarded by special internal security operations on the plane.”
On Monday, US Judge Patricia Miletus of Colombia County criticized the use of Trump administration by the Enegery Enemy Act to deport men without a proper process.
“The Nazis received a better treatment under the Alien Enemy Act,” Millet said during a court hearing. “People were not informed. They were not told where they were going. These people in these plans this Saturday were not able to submit habbits [corpus] or any kind of action to challenge removal. “
The lawyer of the Ministry of Justice, Drew Endaen, claims that President Donald Trump is exercising major powers of the President by deporting Venezuells, who the administration has accused of being a violent gang without providing evidence.
The administration also criticizes US district judge James Boasberg for trying to turn the deportation flight, claiming that he has exceeded his authority.
