J.P.P. v. DHS, et al.

The ACLU of Colorado filed a lawsuit to halt the illegal deportation of J.P.P., a Venezuelan asylum seeker, to El Salvador.

On April 2, 2025, we filed a lawsuit to halt the illegal deportation to El Salvador of J.P.P., a Venezuelan asylum seeker. We also filed a motion for a temporary restraining order to prevent ICE from carrying out such a removal. The lawsuit argued that J.P.P.’s deportation to El Salvador without notice or an opportunity to contest the removal would violate the Fifth Amendment, the Administrative Procedure Act, and the court-ordered protections in the related class action D.V.D. et al. v. U.S. Dep’t Homeland Security et al., No. 1:25-cv-10676 (D. Mass. 2025).

J.P.P. was detained during a large-scale raid across the Denver area in early February. During the raid, federal agents threw flashbang grenades into J.P.P.’s apartment, held his family at gunpoint, and handcuffed him, his wife, and his young children, all without explanation. Officers never presented a warrant to J.P.P. to justify their home invasion and terrorizing tactics. J.P.P. was then taken into custody and held at the for-profit GEO Detention Facility in Aurora.

J.P.P. feared that he would be transferred to an El Salvadoran mega-prison known as the Center for Terrorism Confinement (CECOT). Conditions at CECOT are infamously poor. People are regularly subjected to torture, overcrowding, medical neglect, and are denied visitation from loved ones and human rights groups. Courts repeatedly have held that people cannot be removed to a third country if they have a fear of persecution or torture there.

Shortly after the litigation was initiated, the government transferred J.P.P. to his home country of Venezuela. On April 7, 2025, J.P.P. voluntarily dismissed the litigation