Protest the Unlawful Deportation of Venezuelan Immigrants to El Salvador (UPDATED 4/14)

Updates

April 14, 2025: During an Oval Office meeting with El Salvador authoritarian President Bukele, both men made clear that they will not return Abrego Garcia to the US despite the man’s known innocence and federal court orders.

April 8, 2025: With a 5-4 ruling, the Supreme Court has lifted a lower court’s restraining order on the administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to detain and deport Venezuelan migrants and stated that further challenges to the AEA invocation must be done in Texas courts. However, all 9 justices maintained that migrants must be given due process before deportation.

As part of a crackdown on immigration, Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA) in a proclamation authorizing the expedited removal of all Venezuelan noncitizens deemed to have ties to Tren de Aragua (TdA), a transnational criminal organization that Trump declared was perpetrating an invasion. The AEA is an obscure law that allows the president to deport noncitizens during wartime, and can only be invoked once Congress declares war. It has only been used 3 times in US history: during the War of 1812, World War I, and in World War II, when thousands of Japanese noncitizens were put into internment camps. A federal judge swiftly blocked Trump’s proclamation of the AEA and ordered flights carrying Venezuelan detainees to be turned around, but Trump administration officials defied the court’s orders and continued to hand over these immigrants to the El Salvador government where they were detained in CECOT, a notoriously dangerous and inhumane prison.

Judge Boasberg has not only questioned Trump’s use of the AEA for this particular non-wartime use, but has also raised concerns about the due process rights of the migrants being detained and sent to El Salvador. Many of the 261 deported Venezuelans have no criminal record or ties to TdA. Some were detained and deported simply because of their tattoos. Families and attorneys have no way to locate or contact some of the detainees. And legal experts fear there is no method of recourse to remove and return innocent men from El Salvador’s megaprison.

The Trump administration is using the AEA to round up and criminalize immigrants without cause or constitutionally-mandated due process, and there is real concern that US citizens could fall victim to this chaotic practice. Despite a federal court’s continued pushback, the Trump administration is more interested in impeaching the judge than complying with his orders. Trump’s invocation of the AEA is not only destroying the lives of innocent civilians, it is also creating a dangerous constitutional crisis.