[The family of Francisco Javier García Casique demands justice after his deportation to El Salvador. With no criminal record or gang ties, his only “offense” was having tattoos.]
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 17, 2025
Media Contact: Melissa Garriga | [email protected]
CODEPINK Condemns Trump’s Illegal Deportations and U.S.-Funded Mass Incarceration of Venezuelans
The Trump administration’s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans is an illegal, racist, and politically motivated assault on human rights. By invoking a wartime law last used to intern Japanese Americans during World War II, Trump has opened the door to mass expulsions of Venezuelans, people who fled a crisis the U.S. helped create through brutal economic sanctions.
Trump has already deported 234 Venezuelans, despite a federal judge’s order blocking this action. Using the Alien Enemies Act to expel any Venezuelan in the U.S. by classifying them as “enemy nationals,” Venezuelans as young as 14 are at risk of being declared “terrorists” with no evidence, no trial, and no legal protection. This is not immigration policy — this is dehumanization and kidnapping.
But the cruelty does not stop there. The Trump administration has signed a $6 million deal with El Salvador’s authoritarian government to imprison deported Venezuelans for at least a year without due process, evidence, or trial. The migrants being deported have not been convicted of any crime, but under the Bukele regime’s mass incarceration policies, they are being sent into a prison system notorious for human rights abuses and over 300 reported deaths.
This policy does not make the U.S. safer. It is a racist, xenophobic, and politically motivated operation designed to advance Trump’s campaign rhetoric and expand his illegal anti-immigrant crackdown.
Although Venezuela has agreed to take back deportees from the U.S., Trump has criticized Venezuela for not expediting their return. But Venezuela has every right to carefully vet individuals being expelled by the U.S., especially given the political motivations behind these deportations. The U.S. has a long history of backing violent actors to incite unrest in Venezuela, from funding and training opposition groups involved in coup attempts to openly supporting violent street protests known as “guarimbas.” No sovereign nation should be expected to accept deportees without transparency and due process. For Venezuela, ensuring that those being returned do not pose a renewed threat to national stability is not just a right, it is a necessity.
Trump’s policies systematically target Venezuelans at every stage: first, through economic sanctions on Venezuela that create the very conditions forcing migration and then by criminalizing and deporting those who flee. Now, with plans to implement a travel ban under a so-called “red tier” designation, his administration seeks to cut off Venezuelans entirely, denying them the right to asylum, separating families, and blocking cultural, academic, and professional exchanges.
This is a war on Venezuelans, both inside and outside their country.
We refuse to stand by silently while Trump uses deportations as a political weapon.
We call for:
- An immediate end to all deportations of Venezuelans under the Alien Enemies Act and the termination of Trump’s illegal deportation scheme.
- A complete cancellation of the U.S. deal with El Salvador that funds the indefinite detention of Venezuelans in Bukele’s prisons.
- The reversal of Trump’s revocation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans and reinstatement of humanitarian protections.
- The lifting of all U.S. sanctions on Venezuela, sanctions that have driven forced migration and humanitarian suffering.
- An end to the criminalization of Venezuelan migrants and the rejection of Trump’s proposed travel ban targeting Venezuelans.
- An immediate congressional investigation into Trump’s abuse of the Alien Enemies Act, his administration’s defiance of court orders, and the outsourcing of U.S. migrant detention to a foreign authoritarian government.
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