1. United States
2. Wash.
3. Letter

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 is incompatible with modern international human rights laws and refugee protections that the United States is bound to uphold. This archaic law predates comprehensive legal frameworks prohibiting arbitrary detention, barring refoulement to torture, and ensuring due process rights. By invoking this act to summarily deport over 130 Venezuelans to El Salvador without any legal proceedings, the Trump administration has subjected them to enforced disappearances and indefinite arbitrary detention in a notorious prison where they face serious risks of torture and abuse. Such blatant violations of human rights cannot be tolerated. As this report conclusively shows, the Alien Enemies Act is fundamentally at odds with the United States' binding human rights obligations and must be immediately repealed by Congress before more irreparable harm is inflicted on vulnerable individuals. The continued existence of this dangerous law on the books threatens the human rights of all non-citizens in the country.