WASHINGTON/CARACAS - El Salvador is sending home Venezuelans detained in the country in a prisoner exchange for Americans held in Venezuela, officials from all three countries said on Friday.

In a post on X, El Salvador President Nayib Bukele said those freed in Venezuela were en route to El Salvador from where they would continue "their journey home," while U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed the release of "ten Americans who were detained in Venezuela." He thanked Bukele for his help in securing the agreement.

Venezuela's government confirmed that 252 Venezuelans held in El Salvador had been freed.

Reuters reported earlier on Friday that the prison swap was happening.

The Venezuelans were sent to El Salvador from the United States in March after U.S. President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to swiftly deport alleged members of the Tren de Aragua gang without going through normal immigration procedures.

The Alien Enemies Act is best known for being used to intern and deport people of Japanese, German and Italian descent during World War Two, and Democrats said Trump's use of it resurrected a dark era.

In El Salvador the Venezuelans were held in the notorious CECOT maximum security prison. The deportations drew fierce criticism from human rights groups and a legal battle with the Trump administration over allegations that due process was not followed.

Family members of many of the Venezuelans and their lawyers deny they had gang ties, and say they were not given a chance to contest the Trump administration's allegations in court.

"I can't believe it," said Angie Rios, the U.S. citizen wife of Venezuelan CECOT detainee Jesus Rios after seeing Bukele's X post about the release. "I have chills all over my body."

POLITICAL PRISONERS

A photo, shared by the shuttered U.S. embassy in Caracas on X, showed 10 men dressed in what appeared to be prison uniforms, waving American flags alongside U.S. Charge d’Affaires John McNamara, who is based in Bogota. A press representative said the photo was taken in Caracas.

Senior U.S. officials also said 80 political prisoners in Venezuela would be freed, although the Venezuelan government referred only to "alternative" detention measures in its statement.

Separately, Venezuela hailed the return of seven migrant children who had been separated from their parents in the United States. The children were among more than 200 Venezuelans who returned on a regular deportation flight.

Venezuela's government has always decried the detention of its citizens as a violation of human rights and international law. But the government's critics say the country holds activists and opposition figures in similar conditions in Venezuela.

Trump's use of the Alien Enemies Act kicked off a major legal standoff in the U.S. that tested the balance of power between the president and the judiciary, a co-equal branch of government to the executive.

Much of the legal battle focused on whether the Trump administration had violated a court order by declining to turn around the planes carrying the Venezuelans to El Salvador, despite a judge's directive to halt the deportations.

The Supreme Court in May said the Trump administration must give "constitutionally adequate notice" before using the Alien Enemies Act to bypass standard immigration processes.

The high court also ruled that people subjected to the law are entitled to habeas petitions to request their release, limiting its application. REUTERS