Behind Trump’s Brutal & Debasing Latino Deportations
By Tim Young, Labour Friends of Progressive Latin America
President Trump’s recent and ongoing expulsions of Latin Americans and others has attracted headline news around the world and particularly in the region. As part of this, Trump has taken steps to end birthright citizenship, a move that would disproportionately affect nearly 70 million Latinos in the US. Arbitrary arrests, deportations, and the revocation of documentation are escalating.
But to understand why this is taking place, we need to take a wider look at how it dovetails with his reactionary agenda for both the US domestically and for key countries in Latin America.
At root are an interlocking series of countries and sectors of society that Trump scapegoats for what he perceives to be the current ills of the United States. In this mindset, the US economy’s weaknesses are the responsibility of countries – particularly China – which sell goods to the US that it no longer produces or cannot compete with. Trump’s answer is tariffs, to promote domestic manufacturing and production and stop further outsourcing. Tariffs on China’s goods are an eye-watering 145% but other countries, notably Mexico and Canada, have had high tariffs threatened.
Coupled with that is blaming migrants – for stealing jobs, for creating a housing crisis, for crime, for illicit drugs and for all the usual litany of problems that this reactionary line of attack is marshalled as an explanation.
Project 2025, the blueprint for Trump’s presidency assembled by a coalition of conservative organisations but led by the notorious right-wing Heritage Foundation think-tank, set out in detail how the incoming Trump administration should set about dealing with the perceived culprits for the US’s problems.
In Latin America, it notes recent “leftist electoral victories from Mexico to Chile”, with governments “hostile to American interests and …more open to striking partnerships with Communist China.”
Southcom leader Admiral Alvin Hosley echoed this in testimony to the Senate Armed Services Committee in February, saying; “the malign activities, harmful influence, and autocratic philosophy of China are a direct threat to the democratic will.”
At a level below military engagement, Trump has promised the biggest mass deportations of undocumented migrants in US history, as part of his objective to “secure the border, finish building the wall, and deport illegal aliens.”
Foremost in line here are Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua, but Honduran migrants are in Trump’s sights too, leading President Xiomara Castro to threaten shutting US military bases in the country if Trump follows through with deportations.
To conduct deportations, the Trump administration has invoked the 1798 Alien and Enemies Act as a thinly veiled legal pretext to justify the mass expulsion of Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and others. Some deportees have been sent to detention facilities such as the notorious Guantánamo Bay.
As part of these moves, the Trump administration struck a deal with the ultra-reactionary Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, paying US$6 million to detain 238 Venezuelans branded “foreign terrorists.” Amnesty International has condemned the Venezuelans’ expulsion, which happened despite a court order explicitly barring their removal. – and the degrading treatment of detainees has also drawn wide condemnation
In a joint statement (reproduced in full below), the Venezuela Solidarity Campaign and the Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group have unequivocally condemned Trump’s brutal and debasing deportations – and calling for increased campaigning against them.
Let’s stand up to Trump!
Statement: Trump’s mass deportations of migrants must be condemned.
Joint statement by Venezuela Solidarity Campaign and Nicaragua Solidarity Campaign Action Group.
“The Trump administration has invoked the 1798 Alien and Enemies Act as a thinly veiled legal pretext to justify the mass expulsion of Venezuelans, Nicaraguans, and others. Some deportees have been sent to detention facilities such as the notorious internment camp in Guantanamo Bay – many were detained without evidence, arrest warrants, or probable cause, let alone justification for imprisonment.
Trump has also taken steps to end birthright citizenship, a move that would disproportionately affect nearly 70 million Latinos in the US. Arbitrary arrests, deportations, and the revocation of documentation – even for legal residents – are escalating daily.
The degrading treatment of detainees – often reminiscent of Guantanamo’s worst abuses – has drawn wide condemnation. While mainstream media has focused on Venezuelans, the New York Times reports that Guantanamo also holds Salvadorans and Nicaraguans, whom Secretary of Defense, Peter Hegseth dismissively refers to as “temporary transit” detainees.”
Trump has also revoked the long-standing policy granting to Cubans automatic permanent residence – a right once actively encouraged by the US government. Now, 530,000 Cubans, along with Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans who gained status under Biden, face deportation.
Many Venezuelan migrants are being falsely labelled as members of the Tren de Aragua gang on the flimsiest of reasons such as a tattoo in support of a football club, and shipped not only to Guantanamo but also to El Salvador’s CECOT prison – a so-called “Terrorism Confinement Centre” where conditions are subhuman, with reports from El Salvadoran organisations of over 300 deaths in custody, some showing clear signs of violence.
The Trump administration struck a deal with Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, paying US$6 million to detain 238 Venezuelans branded “foreign terrorists” by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt. Amnesty International has condemned the Venezuelans’ expulsion, despite a court order explicitly barring their removal.
The Salvadoran organization Bloque de Resistencia y Rebeldia Popular (BRP) has denounced the Trump-Bukele pact as “arbitrary and dehumanising,” violating international law and making El Salvador complicit in Trump’s xenophobic and criminalising immigration policies. It has demanded the El Salvador Supreme Court nullify the detentions.
Venezuelan Attorney General Tarek Williams Saab has petitioned El Salvador’s Supreme Court for habeas corpus relief for detained Venezuelans, while President Maduro condemned the deportations as kidnappings and sought intervention from the UN’s Secretary General and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights.
A coordinated media campaign – spearheaded by Trump, far-right Venezuelan opposition leader Maria Corina Machado, and US Senators such as Ted Cruz and parroted by the main corporate media outlets – has propagated the myth of a Venezuelan government-backed Tren de Aragua cartel flooding the U.S. with criminals. President Maduro has described this campaign “as the biggest lie ever told about [Venezuela]” and has vowed to fight for the repatriation of every wrongfully detained Venezuelan.
We unequivocally condemn the US government’s egregious violation of migrants’ legal rights. This struggle must now become the focal point for the international solidarity movement, demanding the immediate release of all unjustly imprisoned migrants.”
- Tim Young is an activist with the Labour Friends of Progressive Latin America. You can follow them on Facebook and Twitter/X.
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