El Salvador’s President Nayib Bukele just released a video of hundreds of suspected criminal migrants bussed back into El Salvador as previously promised by former President Donald Trump and he expressed strong support and gratitude for that. It shows detainees in custody, being escorted under very heavy, very high security, spurring renewed debate over U.S. immigration policy and how it undertakes deportations.
Trump thanked President Bukele in a public statement for his cooperation in accepting the deportees, noting the ‘firm and responsible’ leadership that has allowed the return of those suspected of posing security risks from Honduras. In emphasizing the liabilities of Aliens Enemies Act of 1798 when it comes to deporting them, Trump mentioned that some of the undocumented people were deported with the use of the authority of Aliens Enemies Act, which is a much older legal provision adopted by America at the early days of the country and it allows the United States government to hold and deport those not from a country that America is at war with. It is rarely invoked in modern times, but the Act has become a subject of conservative legal dialogue on national security and immigration enforcements.
Of the 261 deportation cases in this one round, 137 were carried out based on the Alien Enemies Act. There were 101 Venezuelan nationals and 21 allegedly affiliated with the violent MS 13 gang left. Trump heaped on his criticism of Democratic immigration policies when he noted the inclusion of MS-13 members, claiming tighter border enforcement and tougher vetting practices potentially could have kept such people out or ejected from the U.S. Democratic leaders, he said, were enabling exactly the conditions that caused what he called ‘dangerous influx’ of criminal elements into American communities.
By offering this statement, Trump was reminding supporters of the president’s administration’s priorities, gang violence and illegal immigration curbs included, and once again solidifying himself as a candidate that focuses on law and order. Appearing at the same time when Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele has been sung for or castigated for his hard-line stance on gang activity in El Salvador, his praise for Bukele conflicted. Salvadorans have as well praised as been concerned with Bukele’s mass incarceration strategy, which has led to the imprisonment of thousands suspected gang members, with human rights groups worried about due process and the treatment of detainees.
Footage of the deportation along with Trump’s response to it have brought up again the illegality and moral issues of mass deportations based on old and seldom used laws. Immigration advocates have been raising troublesome questions about civil liberties and the rights of non-citizens by the use of the Alien Enemies Act. Others say it is designed to utilie all legal means to protect national security.
The deportation of the 101 Venezuelan nationals made matters all the worse compounded by an already sensitive diplomatic matter. Relations between the U.S. and Venezuela have been strained over the years and deportations there have been questioned as having shown concerns for an unstable politically regime, and economic and human rights crisis continuing in the country under the rule of Nicolás Maduro.
Bukele hasn’t directly responded to Trump’s statement in depth but his administration has remained in contact with U.S. authorities on personnel and immigration enforcement issues, particularly when it comes to combating gangs and regional security. But tensions in the relationship with El Salvador especially have led to a perception from the U.S. State Department that there are sovereignty, human rights, governance issues.
But they are emblematic of the president’s more general approach to campaigning and the way he influences politics, especially just before the next presidential election. Continuously reliance on immigration and border security has been a bedrock of former president’s platform, and high profile cases such as this one, which he blames on current policies, have been used by him as a tool to vilify current operating regimes while advancing his own policy.
The question remains and arguments continue about how to avoid tearing apart national security, meet humanitarian obligations to encourage migrants’ fair treatment, and how to do this in the face of an increasingly complicated global environment as just a legal experts, politicians and voters weigh in.
