In response to the recent unlawful expulsion of 238 Venezuelan nationals from the United States to El Salvador under the allegation that they belong to the criminal group Tren de Aragua, despite a court order barring their removal, Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International, said the following:
“The expulsion of 238 individuals from the United States to El Salvador, despite a court order explicitly barring their removal, represents not only a flagrant disregard of the United States’ human rights obligations, but also a dangerous step toward authoritarian practices as the Trump administration ignored and is now calling for the firing of a federal judge of the United States Judiciary. This is also a dangerous endorsement of President Bukele’s punitive security agenda.
The expulsion of 238 individuals from the United States to El Salvador, despite a court order explicitly barring their removal represents not only a flagrant disregard of the United States’ human rights obligations, but also a dangerous step toward authoritarian practices as the Trump administration ignored and is now calling for the firing of a federal judge of the United States Judiciary. This is also a dangerous endorsement of President Bukele’s punitive security agenda.
Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International
“According to available public information, the people expelled include individuals who were in the midst of ongoing court processes, were arrested while complying with their immigration obligations, were already granted protections in the United States including under the Convention Against Torture, and were labeled as gang members for their tattoos or connection to the Venezuelan state of Aragua with no other evidence. In fact, even U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials have since admitted “many” had no criminal record at all and some were removed because of a perception they may commit crimes in the future. Importantly, these expulsions are not deportations, a legal process defined in U.S. law. They were expelled without removal orders, seemingly to serve an indefinite prison sentence under a system where fundamental human rights are routinely ignored.
El Salvador under President Bukele has become emblematic of an alarming trend in the Americas—where mass incarceration, unchecked executive power, and the criminalization of marginalized communities are being touted as solutions to crime. Amnesty International has extensively documented the inhumane conditions within detentions centers in El Salvador, including the Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT), where those removed are now being held. Reports indicate extreme overcrowding, lack of access to adequate medical care, and widespread ill-treatment amounting to cruel, inhuman, or degrading treatment. Additionally, Salvadoran organizations have reported more than 300 deaths of individuals while in state custody, some of them showing clear signs of violence. No individual should be subjected to such conditions.
There is a clear and troubling connection between President Bukele’s so-called “security” model in El Salvador and recent actions taken by the United States regarding migrants and people seeking safety. Both rely on a lack of due process and the criminalization of individuals based on discriminatory criteria.
Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International
There is a clear and troubling connection between President Bukele’s so-called “security” model in El Salvador and recent actions taken by the United States regarding migrants and people seeking safety. Both rely on a lack of due process and the criminalization of individuals based on discriminatory criteria. In El Salvador, this discrimination targets people living in impoverished communities, those with precarious jobs, limited education, or visible tattoos. Similarly, in the United States, Venezuelans fleeing hardship and seeking safety are branded as criminals based upon tattoos, their connection to the State of Aragua in Venezuela, and racist lies about associations with transnational criminal groups originating in their home country. These policies are deeply unjust and violate international human rights standards.
The principle of non-refoulement, a cornerstone of international human rights law, unequivocally prohibits states from returning, removing, or transferring individuals to any country where they would face a real risk of serious human rights violations, including arbitrary detention, torture, or ill-treatment. By removing individuals to El Salvador under these circumstances, the United States has placed them in grave danger and failed to uphold its obligations its legal obligations. Meanwhile, El Salvador must be held accountable for facilitating policies that violate the rights of migrants and people seeking safety. Any subsequent removal of the individuals from El Salvador to Venezuela would also violate the principle of non-refoulement. The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) has called on States to ensure that Venezuelans are not deported, expelled or forced to return to Venezuela. Amnesty International has called for an absolute ban on all deportations of individuals to Venezuela given that the country is experiencing a situation of massive human rights violations.
On 27 March 2025, El Salvador will reach its third consecutive year under a state of emergency, a regime that has institutionalized patterns of abuse that are now being echoed beyond its borders, further eroding the international human rights framework…Rather than condemning these practices, other governments, such as the United States, appear to be emulating them.
Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International
What is particularly concerning is that the erosion of due process in El Salvador is now being normalized—both domestically and internationally. Rather than condemning these practices, other governments, such as the United States, appear to be emulating them. This is the dangerous consequence of authoritarian practices becoming systematic and recurring: they evolve from isolated abuses into official state policy. On 27 March 2025, El Salvador will reach its third consecutive year under a state of emergency, a regime that has institutionalized patterns of abuse that are now being echoed beyond its borders, further eroding the international human rights framework.
Amnesty International urges the government of El Salvador, and all countries throughout the Americas, to resist participation in unjust deportation and removal schemes.
Amnesty International urges the government of El Salvador, and all countries throughout the Americas, to resist participation in unjust deportation and removal schemes.
Ana Piquer, Americas director at Amnesty International
Salvadoran authorities must urgently restore due process throughout the country and guarantee the human rights, safety, and dignity of all individuals currently detained, including the more than 84,000 people arrested under the ongoing state of emergency. The Salvadoran government must ensure its policies and practices do not facilitate further human rights abuses or place vulnerable individuals at risk.
We also call on the US government to immediately return those that were illegally removed to El Salvador and halt any subsequent expulsions under this executive order, comply with the decisions of the US Judiciary, and immediately halt all plans for mass detentions and deportations, and reestablish the right to asylum at the United States’ southern border.
Amnesty International stands in solidarity with those impacted by this unjust policy and will continue to advocate for the protection of human rights in the Americas and beyond.”
Header image of a handout picture provided by the Salvadoran presidency: a guard opens a gate before a humanitarian visit to counter-terrorism confinement center CECOT (SPANISH: Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo) on August 21, 2023 in Tecoluca, El Salvador. Photo by Handout/Getty Images.
