US Escalates Venezuelan Migrant Crackdown with 18th-Century Act, Forced Expulsions to El Salvador

Caracas, March 17, 2025 (venezuelanalysis.com) – The Donald Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act to ramp up its efforts to target and deport Venezuelan migrants, with 238 forcibly expelled to El Salvador.

Trump has focused on the purported threat posed by Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) and on Saturday, the White House issued a statement, accusing the criminal organization of “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States.” 

“TdA has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration […] to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas,” the document read.

The Nicolás Maduro government condemned the use of an “anachronistic, illegal and human rights violating” legal instrument against Venezuelan migrants.

“The vast majority of Venezuelan migrants are hard-working, dignified and honest men and women,” Caracas’ communique read. “They are not alien enemies. They are victims.” Venezuelan authorities pledged to resort to multilateral instances to protect its migrants’ rights and called on CELAC to mobilize a regional response.

The US President, who has frequently invoked TdA, claimed the group is “perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against [US] territory.” The enacted decree determines that all Venezuelans 14 and over who are determined to be members of Tren de Aragua can be detained and deported as “Alien Enemies.”

Trump’s statement ordered the US Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security to “apprehend and remove every Alien Enemy.” The fast-tracked deportations plan suffered an immediate setback when federal judge James Boasberg imposed a 14-day temporary restraining order to examine the act’s legality. 

The lawsuit challenging the Alien Enemies Act was pursued by Democracy Forward and the ACLU, representing Venezuelan plaintiffs at risk of immediate deportation. Democracy Forward’s Skye Perryman called Saturday “a horrific day” in US history, arguing that Trump is seeking “extraordinary wartime powers in the absence of a war.”

According to CBS, the administration plans to use the wartime act to authorize summary deportations, including to the US base in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In February, US authorities transferred 177 Venezuelan migrants to the infamous overseas military facility. The deportees returned to Venezuela, via Honduras, on February 20.

The 1798 Alien Enemies Act was created by the US government to tackle foreign espionage threats. Used only a handful of times in history, it was last invoked during World War II and paved the way for Japanese internment camps in the US.

In its statement, the US government went on to charge the gang originating from Venezuela with having ties to the Maduro government and the so-called “Cartel de los Soles,” an alleged drug trafficking outfit that Washington says is run by the Venezuelan military. 

In 2020, the US Justice Department levied “narco-terrorism” charges against Maduro and other high-ranking officials over a recurring accusation that Venezuelan leaders conspire to “flood” the US with drugs. It announced a US $15 million bounty for Maduro’s arrest that the Biden administration later increased to $25 million. US authorities did not provide any information to support the allegations, and data from US agencies and think tanks shows that less than 10 percent of US-bound cocaine flows through Venezuela’s eastern Caribbean corridor.

After building his campaign heavily on anti-migrant rhetoric, particularly targeting Venezuelans and Tren de Aragua, Trump moved to designate the group as a Foreign Terrorist Organization upon taking office. Nevertheless, neither the administration nor law enforcement agencies have provided any evidence that the group is behind any serious criminal activities in US territory.

Furthermore, US authorities have not presented any proof that the Venezuelan nationals arrested and deported belong to the group. Relatives of detainees have pleaded their innocence and denounced criminal profiling based on elements such as tattoos. Critics have argued that the discourse conflating all Venezuelan aliens with the Tren de Aragua aims to criminalize migrants.

At the same time, the US is sending hundreds of alleged Tren de Aragua members to prisons in El Salvador following a deal with President Nayib Bukele. According to the Associated Press, the Trump administration will pay $20,000 per inmate per year to the Central American nation to hold them captive.

On Sunday, Bukele confirmed the arrival of 238 Venezuelans who were sent to the “Terrorism Confinement Center” (CECOT). The flights reportedly defied Judge Boasberg’s order that the planes be turned back. Known for its draconian mass incarceration policies, the Salvadoran government struck an agreement with Secretary of State Marco Rubio to allow Washington to outsource migrant detentions.

Tren de Aragua is reported to have emerged in Venezuela in the early 2010s, through a combination of a railway construction syndicate and a growing foothold in Venezuelan prisons. Judicial authorities claim that the organization was dismantled in the country following large-scale operations in 2022-2023 to root out criminal enterprises operating inside jails.

Caracas organized several repatriation flights bringing back around 600 migrants to the country. The coordination with Washington came under question following a recent escalation of economic sanctions against the South American Nation. However, both White House Special Envoy Richard Grenell and Venezuelan National Assembly President Jorge Rodríguez confirmed that the flights would resume.

Edited by José Luis Granados Ceja in Mexico City, Mexico.