Brazilian Jurists Reject U.S. Actions Against Venezuelan Migrants
A Venezuelan migrant in a Salvadoran jail. X/ @MarialciraMatuT
March 26, 2025 Hour: 9:34 am
The transfer of migrants to El Salvador’s maximum-security prison constitute a case of human trafficking, ABJD stated.
On Tuesday, the Brazilian Association of Jurists for Democracy (ABJD) denounced that the United States has used the Alien Enemy Act to kidnap 238 Venezuelan migrants and deport them to El Salvador without providing them due process. The ABJD’s public statement is presented below.
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The U.S. has decided to apply the 1798 Alien Enemy Act extraterritorially to kidnap and deport immigrants, claiming that its application has become necessary to ensure national security.
The U.S. is invoking a pseudo “right” to enforce this 227-year-old law, which was enacted for use during wartime, not peacetime. Historically, the U.S. has only used this law in three exceptional circumstances: (i) during the burning of the White House by British troops in 1812, (ii) during World War I and World War II against U.S. citizens of Japanese descent, and (iii) in no other documented cases since then.
The application of this law not only violates fundamental U.S. laws but also undermines the entire international legal order. The law itself predates the modern and universal concepts of fundamental rights and international human rights, the United Nations Charter, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the International Convention on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families (adopted by UN General Assembly Resolution 45/158 on December 18, 1990, and in force since July 1, 2003), and the Declaration on the Human Rights of Individuals Who Are Not Nationals of the Country in Which They Live (adopted by Resolution 40/144 on December 13, 1985), which confirms that such violations constitute crimes against humanity.
These violations are being carried out under the justification that “the affected immigrants are Alien Enemies.” For this reason, the aforementioned law—previously used only in wartime—is now being revived in peacetime to illegally kidnap and deport immigrants residing in the U.S., without following due process under U.S. domestic law.
This is happening without formal charges, without the guarantee of a full defense or an adversarial legal procedure, without a custody hearing, and in blatant violation of the right to due process and a fair trial.
The actions of the U.S. government, in light of the facts described herein, can be classified as kidnapping and human trafficking. The U.S. has been abducting individuals, confiscating their property, deporting them, and imprisoning them without due legal process, detaining them in prisons located in Guantanamo, Cuba, and El Salvador, where they are subjected to forced labor as slave labor for accredited companies.
In the case of the El Salvador prison, there is an aggravating factor: a cooperation agreement between former U.S. President Donald Trump’s administration and the government of El Salvador’s Nayib Bukele. According to the Associated Press, El Salvador agreed to house approximately 300 migrants in its prisons for one year at a cost of US$6 million.
A violent process of generalized criminalization of immigrants of various nationalities is underway in the United States as a policy of the Trump II administration. However, the case of the 238 Venezuelans and 35 Mexicans, among others, is particularly emblematic because it sets a dangerous precedent.
This operation was preceded by the creation of a suspicious and fragile legal framework, starting with the declaration that all the accused belonged to a criminal faction from Venezuela known as “The Aragua Train”, which had already been dismantled and eradicated by Venezuelan security forces.
Despite numerous requests, the U.S. has never provided evidence of the faction’s continued existence, its alleged connection to the Venezuelan government, or the claim that its members were infiltrating the U.S. on behalf of the Venezuelan state.
The kidnapping operation, which resulted in the transfer of 238 Venezuelans and 35 Mexicans to a prison in El Salvador on the grounds that they belonged to this long-dismantled criminal organization, directly violates the International System of Human Rights Guarantees.
The U.S. has transgressed the most fundamental principles of international human rights law, with the operation taking place between March 14 and 16, 2025.
The Trump administration’s “Executive Orders” and their mandatory, illegal, and unilateral extraterritorial enforcement have initiated a broad process of criminalizing “migrants” of various nationalities throughout the Americas—regardless of the social, economic, and political factors that compel individuals to move from one territory to another.
This (i) occurred in defiance of precautionary measures issued by U.S. federal judge James Boasberg; (ii) ignored the willingness of the Venezuelan government under Nicolas Maduro to repatriate its citizens, as it had provided aircraft to transport them back; and (iii) took place without any communication, appeal, or diplomatic negotiation between the involved states.
The kidnapping operation and the transfer of the accused to El Salvador’s maximum-security prison constitute a new case of human trafficking, in explicit violation of the United Nations Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment. This treaty, which protects individuals from torture and other cruel treatment, was adopted on December 10, 1984—Human Rights Day.
The fact that this operation involves economic and financial interests for the parties involved makes it even more egregious. It is illegal, based on weak evidence, and violates international legal provisions to which both involved countries are signatories.
It constitutes an attack on the citizenship, sovereignty, and self-determination of Latin American and Caribbean nations, as it sets a dangerous precedent and represents a real and concrete threat that could be indiscriminately applied to any other people in the region.
Finally, we affirm that the actions of the Trump II administration are unprecedented in the recent history of civilization in times of peace. They constitute an attack on all of humanity, demanding a response from all states, international organizations, and human rights defenders to reject and condemn these grave violations, and to raise their voices in defense of the principles of human dignity, international human rights law, and justice.
In this regard, the SRI-ABJD joins the organizations and institutions denouncing the grave precedent set by the U.S. government’s abduction and transfer of 238 Venezuelans and 35 Mexicans, and their subsequent imprisonment by the government of El Salvador.
We reject the unprecedented application of the so-called 1798 law and the extension of its extraterritorial jurisdiction. We remain firmly committed to the uncompromising defense of human rights for immigrant communities of all nationalities, as well as the fundamental right of individuals to move freely and exercise their freedoms.
teleSUR/ JF
Source: ABJD
