Statement by the Venezuelan Solidarity Network, March 2025
The Venezuela Solidarity Network (VSN) denounces President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act against alleged members of the Tren de Aragua criminal organization as an outrageous and illegal action that seeks to criminalize Venezuelan migrants in the context of an ongoing effort to bring about regime change in Venezuela. The VSN further categorically rejects the $6 million agreement signed between the United States and El Salvador to deport 300 Venezuelans to El Salvador and imprison there for at least a year for unsubstantiated criminal ties.
Trump’s targeting of Venezuelan migrants includes dehumanizing rhetoric on the campaign trail, the termination of 2023 designation of Temporary Protected Status (TPS) for Venezuelans, and the revocation of the humanitarian parole program for Venezuelans. The VSN notes that the first Trump Administration’s “maximum pressure policy” and application of hundreds of unilateral coercive measures is the root cause of Venezuelan migration. It is doubly cruel to apply killer sanctions on a nation and then criminalize, arrest, deport, and potentially disappear migrants who are among the first victims of those sanctions.
The VSN also rejects the travel ban the Trump administration is set to propose, which would place Venezuelans in the “red tier,” banning all Venezuelans from entry into the United States. This placement has no national security justification and would harm efforts of people-to-people diplomacy, including cultural, academic and professional exchanges.
Under the Alien Enemies Act, any Venezuelan in the U.S. over the age of 14 could be forcibly removed from the country with little recourse. Its proclamation can result in the wholesale kidnapping of hundreds of citizens by designating them as prisoners of war. This same law was used during World War II for the internment of Japanese migrants—one of the shameful chapters in this country’s history. The VSN welcomes a lawsuit filed by Venezuelan migrants against the application of this law.
Although the VSN notes that a federal judge has temporarily blocked the invocation of the Act, the Trump administration has already used it to deport 234 people. A video posted by President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador shows the parading and humiliation of the first Venezuelans to be imprisoned under the deal signed with the U.S. The VSN notes with concern that the deported Venezuelans, many of whom—like their compatriots sent to Guantánamo—may not have criminal records or may have been singled out simply for having tattoos, will be sent to prisons notorious for abuse and torture under the Bukele government. Salvadoran human rights organization Socorro Juridico Humanitario reports that more than 300 persons have died in these prisons. Venezuelan migrants are being illegally sent to a country that has imposed a state of exception since March 2022; this means constitutional guarantees for due process have been suspended and Venezuelan deportees to this penal system will have little or no recourse to seek justice in El Salvador’s judicial system.
In a White House statement, the Trump administration falsely claims the Tren de Aragua (TdA) is directed by President Maduro’s government. According to the Office of the Public Prosecutor, Venezuela “definitively disarticulated” the TdA through law enforcement operations in 2021 and 2023. The remnants of the cartel openly threatened President Maduro in the context of the post-electoral violence organized by fascist operatives in July 2024. Moreover, the White House ascribes the growth of the TdA to Tareck El Aissami, who is currently facing charges of treason in Venezuela for collaborating with U.S. regime change efforts. In a response to the White House, the Venezuelan government states it has provided the U.S. with evidence that a criminal network trafficking migrants is linked to the very U.S.-backed opposition figures that pushed for sanctions in the first place.
U.S. policy harms Venezuelans through sanctions, induces migration, criminalizes and punishes those same migrants, and then imposes more sanctions, such as the recent cancellation of oil licenses for U.S. and European companies. The Venezuela Solidarity Network reiterates its call for the Trump administration to lift all sanctions on Venezuela and cease its deportation of Venezuelan migrants.