U.S. Alien Enemies Act Criminalizes Venezuelan Migrants
Venezuelans returning to their country through the “Return to the Homeland” Plan, 2025.
March 17, 2025 Hour: 7:59 am
The Maduro administration blamed the Venezuelan far right for promoting a campaign to stigmatize migrants.
On Sunday, the Venezuelan Foreign Affairs Ministry denounced that U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to invoke the Alien Enemies Act constitutes a mechanism to criminalize Venezuelan migrants.
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By appealing to a law from 1798, the Trump administration seeks to accelerate the mass deportations of Venezuelans allegedly linked to the Aragua Train, a criminal organization that Venezuelan authorities dismantled some time ago.
“A predatory invasion or incursion against U.S. territory is being perpetrated, attempted, and threatened,” states the U.S. executive order, establishing that all Venezuelans over the age of 14, who are allegedly part of the Aragua Train and who are not naturalized or legal permanent residents, are subject to being detained, held, and expelled as enemy aliens.
In response, the government of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro issued the following statement:
“The Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela categorically and forcefully rejects the proclamation of the United States government, which infamously and unjustly criminalizes Venezuelan migration, in an act that evokes the darkest episodes of human history, from slavery to the horrors of Nazi concentration camps.
The 1798 Alien Enemies Act, on which this presidential order is based, is an outdated law that not only violates fundamental and current laws of the U.S.A. but also breaches international legal frameworks on Human Rights, the United Nations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, and the Declaration on the Human Rights of Individuals Who Are Not Nationals of the Country in Which They Live. Its attempted application amounts to a crime against humanity.
The Venezuelan migrant who crossed our borders in search of alternative means of livelihood did so for economic reasons, which were a consequence of the hardships inflicted on our people by the criminal blockade imposed on our economy by Western governments against the entire Venezuelan society as part of their regime-change plans in Venezuela. The vast majority of these migrants are hardworking, dignified, and honest men and women. They are not terrorists, they are not criminals, nor are they ‘enemy aliens.’ They are victims.
Venezuela rejects the persecution of our fellow citizens, the expropriation of their personal belongings, property, businesses, vehicles, and bank accounts. Likewise, we strongly denounce that our compatriots in the U.S. are being subjected to persecution in their workplaces, schools, churches, hospitals, and public spaces. With profound indignation, we repudiate the threat of the abduction of children under the age of 14. Never before in history has an official document summarily labeled children as members of terrorist groups, considered criminals solely for being Venezuelan.
Maria Corina Machado, Julio Borges, Carlos Paparoni, Leopoldo Lopez, and others make up the criminal core that has repeatedly called for the imposition of unilateral coercive measures against the entire Venezuelan people.
They consider one of their greatest achievements the application of this law against our migrants. Just as they sought political gain from the suffering they inflicted on the people through sanctions, they are responsible for creating a criminal network of smugglers who, in exchange for the money of humble Venezuelan men and women, led many of our compatriots to various countries, including the U.S.
There is sufficient evidence of this criminal action by the extremist opposition faction in Venezuela, which is in the hands of U.S. security agencies. An impartial investigation would bring these facts to light. These traitors celebrate this proclamation, which not only stigmatizes but also invokes the figure of an ‘enemy alien’ to classify a peaceful and hardworking migration.
This new aggression falls within the systematic application of unilateral coercive measures against Venezuela, promoted from Washington with the support of extremist factions of Venezuelan fascism. Since the Executive Order signed in 2015 by Barack Hussein Obama, declaring Venezuela an ‘unusual and extraordinary threat,’ the persecution against our country and our people has not ceased.
Given the severity of this illegitimate maneuver and its violation of human rights, dated March 14 of this year, Venezuela calls for national unity, the boundless spirit of solidarity of our people, and the deployment of all active protest mechanisms in diplomatic, legal, and political spheres in defense of our migrants and their families who remain in our country.
There will be no space within multilateral institutions or in Venezuela’s bilateral relations that will not be used to exhaustively defend the rights of its migrants.
Venezuela makes an urgent and immediate call to the international community, especially the Community of Latin American and Caribbean States (CELAC), to mobilize in defense of the rights of our peoples and denounce this abhorrent action before the world.
This is not just an attack against Venezuela—it sets a dangerous precedent for our entire region. The only possible response to this attempt at segregation, persecution, and mass dispossession is unity and solidarity throughout Latin America. All of Venezuela demands respect for its migrants and their families!”
teleSUR/ JF
Sources: EFE – FM
