( February 17, 2026, 1:06 PM EST) -- WASHINGTON, D.C. — The federal government — after “essentially [telling] the Court to pound sand” following a December 2025 opinion in which the government was given the opportunity to propose steps to facilitate hearings on habeas corpus claims by a class of Venezuelan men who were detained by the United States and held in Texas before being sent to a megaprison in El Salvador, referred to as CECOT, and then released to Venezuela with no opportunity to challenge their removals — must “facilitate the return from third countries of those Plaintiffs who so desire,” a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled....