WASHINGTON — The U.S. Justice Department urged a judge to reject statements from Salvadoran officials suggesting the Trump administration kept legal authority over Venezuelan migrants it sent to a Salvadoran prison.

El Salvador’s statements were included in a U.N. report disclosed earlier this month by attorneys seeking the return of some migrants. El Salvador represented to a U.N. human rights group in April that “the jurisdiction and legal responsibility” for the detainees “lie exclusively” with the U.S. under an agreement between the two countries.

But U.S. government lawyers argued in a court filing Monday that El Salvador’s statements are outdated, unreliable and lack context. They said the U.S. State Department concluded El Salvador had “generally acted consistently” with the understanding that detainees are solely in that country’s custody. However, US officials also indicated there may be a misunderstanding or even intentional misrepresentations by some within that government about the arrangement.

Administration opponents contend the U.N. report shows the administration misled judges overseeing lawsuits alleging some of the deportations were illegal or targeted individuals by mistake. U.S. officials claimed they don’t have custody or control over the detainees under an agreement with El Salvador, which complicates their ability to bring the migrants back even if ordered to do so by the courts.

“A three-month-old submission by an unidentified Salvadoran official modified by the Human Rights Council working group cannot overcome sworn statements from top State Department officials that the United States does ‘not retain custody, constructive or otherwise, over the deported individuals,’” Justice Department attorneys wrote.

The government quoted a State Department cable from May stating that “‘[c]ertain elements within the Salvadoran government’ may not have ‘gotten the message or are disingenuously telling third parties that the United States retains some sort of decision-making authority, perhaps in order to deflect responsibility or avoid difficult decisions.’”

The government asked a judge to file the passage about tension within the Salvadoran government under seal, citing concerns about causing “significant harm to the foreign relations interest of the United States.” However, the document was publicly available on the court docket with the text still accessible.

Spokespeople for the Justice Department and the White House did not immediately respond to requests for comment. A State Department spokesperson replied that they do not comment on pending litigation.

Representatives of the office of El Salvador’s president and the foreign affairs ministry did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

The disputed UN report was prepared as part of a probe into claims that El Salvador was responsible for the disappearance of people sent to its prisons from the US in March. El Salvador denied wrongdoing and sent responses to the U.N. working group in April, stating that the U.S. remained legally responsible for the detainees.

In its Monday court filing, the Justice Department said El Salvador’s statements in the report appeared “copied and modified with ellipses” and that it was unclear if they were referring to legal authority over migrants’ removal from the U.S., as opposed to their ongoing detention in El Salvador.

The U.N. report wasn’t public until lawyers for a group of migrants suing the administration filed it in court earlier this month. That prompted judges in several lawsuits related to migrants sent to El Salvador to ask the government to address it.

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