The months go by, and American immigrants’ safety raises serious concerns, with Trump’s administration deporting more people to EL Salvador without a trial. According to Trump, they are all gang members from the infamous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
On March 15, the first wave of migrants was sent to El Salvador. There were more than 200 Venezuelan immigrants accused of gang activity. These accusations led to their massive deportations, which were previously impossible, but now that Trump has brought back to life a 1798 law, called the Alien Act, which gives the US government the power to detain people during times of war, it has become a reality.
Historically, Trump’s predecessor used the Alien Act for the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, and long before that, it was already used for the same purpose. Detain and deport foreign nationals! These Japanese immigrants were arrested without a warrant or formal charges and deported to their homeland. However, at that time, there was a declared war with Japan, and active fighting even reached Pearl Harbour.
However, the Supreme Court has defended the fact that immigrants have the right to be heard before their removal. Trump responded to the justices with complete ignorance and still deported them.
Two hundred fifty-five people were deported, but are they guilty of the accusations? According to the New York Times investigation, “most of the men do not have criminal records in the United States or elsewhere in the region, beyond immigration offenses.”
Yet, Trump has not elaborated on the jail sentence of the detainees. All they knew before getting deported was that they would be sent to El Salvador. Nothing about a trial or how long they would be in jail. According to the Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem, ” They should send for the rest of their lives.”
Over the last years, El Salvador has become the worst nightmare of many criminals, and the current president of the country, Nayib Bukele, has contributed to the decrease in criminality since the beginning of his mandate.
For the last 2 decades, El Salvador was the most violent country in the world. At his entry into power, the changes were instantaneous. He strengthened the rules on gang activities and increased daily arrests to 20 for the authorities. All these measures based on a complete ignorance of human rights have led to the incarceration of 65,000 people so far. A number that is not close to getting lower!
The detainees in these mega prisons, built by the Salvadorian government, are, for most of them, the worst of a certain cartel or the most notorious one. All of them regroup in the same facilities! According to the latest data from various sources, these prisons are overcrowded.
The accused Venezuelan member sent to his country will be welcomed in the famous mega facilities, which he called CECOT, which stands for Terrorism Confinement Center in the local language.
A district judge in Louisiana, named Terry Doughty, recently reported the deportation of a mother to Honduras with her 2-year-old child. The context was the same as for the accused Venezuelan gang members. When the judge asked to talk to the mother, she was already in the air, which is strange considering the similarity with the previous controversial cases.
These deportations have become so common that the government is no longer trying to justify them. They have become something normal, and when the journalist asked the government spokesperson Tricia Mclaughlin about the deportation of the child with his mother, that’s what she answered: “The parent decided to take the child with them to Honduras,” adding that “it is common that parents want to be removed with their children.”
