1. United States
2. Texas
3. Letter

The mass deportation of innocent Venezuelan asylum seekers under Trump’s brutal immigration crackdown is a disgusting betrayal of American values—and the Republican Party’s silence is complicity. Trump is using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to strip people of their rights and deport them without hearings. His administration claims these migrants are members of the Tren de Aragua gang, but their own legal representatives say otherwise. Jerce Reyes Barrios, a professional soccer player, was deported because of a Real Madrid-inspired tattoo and a social media post. Franco José Caraballo Tiapa, a Venezuelan barber, had a tattoo of his daughter’s birth time—ICE called it a gang symbol. Alejandro Paredes, a construction worker, was deported because he had a skull tattoo, a design common in Venezuelan culture. Luis Fernando Márquez, an LGBTQ+ artist, was targeted for tattoos that had zero connection to any gang. None of these men have criminal records, yet Trump and his enablers ripped them from their lives and sent them to danger. And where are the Republicans? Where is their outrage? Instead of standing up for due process and human rights, they are cowering in silence, terrified of angering their king. They talk about law and order but ignore blatant abuses of power. This is not conservatism—it’s authoritarianism. And history will remember that when faced with a choice between justice and submission, the Republican Party chose to kneel.