The 59-page report, "United States: Repeal the Alien Enemies Act, A Human Rights Argument," describes how the Trump administration has utilized the act as a vehicle for its attempted end run around basic due process and human rights protections. Modern international law binds the United States to respect human rights through treaty frameworks and customary norms, many of which have been incorporated into US domestic law. The Alien Enemies Act is an archaic statute that predates these legal norms and is entirely incompatible with them.
"Congress has an important role in challenging the Trump administration's use of this outdated law to supercharge its mass deportation machine," said Akshaya Kumar, crisis advocacy director at Human Rights Watch. "The Trump administration has already disappeared at least 137 men into a supermax prison in El Salvador, where Trump officials say they should stay for the 'rest of their lives.' Congress should repeal the act before more harm is done."
In March 2025, US President Donald Trump became only the fourth president to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, and the only one to do so outside the context of a declared war. Trump issued an executive order that deems Venezuelans whom it considers to be members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan organized crime group, as "alien enemies" subject to being "apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed." The administration then used this order to summarily remove at least 137 Venezuelan men to El Salvador, where they are being held arbitrarily, indefinitely, and incommunicado in a notorious prison.
The Trump administration's use of the Alien Enemies Act is being challenged in court, but the fact that this controversy is even possible shows there is an urgent need to repeal the law altogether, Human Rights Watch said.
International and US law both require the government to provide an opportunity to anyone who claims a fear of persecution and seeks asylum to have their claims assessed. Both international and US law also prohibit the return of people to places where they are in danger of being subjected to torture. International law also requires that anyone detained should be afforded due process, including the right to a hearing to challenge their confinement.
The Salvadoran government incarcerated the Venezuelans sent there without any apparent legal basis and on an indefinite basis, in a notorious prison called the Center for Confinement of Terrorism (Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo, CECOT). There, the detainees are at risk of torture and ill-treatment, Human Rights Watch said. Family members only found out where their loved ones were when they spotted them in a video of the deportees that the Salvadoran government posted on social media or after reading their names in a leaked list published by CBS News. Human Rights Watch concluded that these people are being held in arbitrary detention and have been subjected to enforced disappearances.
Many of the men were flagged by US authorities for their tattoos. One man, a gay makeup artist with an active asylum claim, was apparently singled out because of his tattoos of a crown on each wrist with the words "Mom" and "Dad" on them. Another was apparently flagged because of a clock on his arm showing the time of his daughter's birth. A third had a tattoo with a symbol of autism awareness.
In a March 14 memorandum, "Guidance for Implementing the Alien Enemies Act," which was recently made public, US Attorney General Pam Bondi told law enforcement officers they were authorized to enter the residences of "alien enemies" without a warrant if "circumstances rendered [obtaining one] impracticable." According to the memo, a "reasonable belief" that individuals meet the "alien enemies" criteria is enough to apprehend someone, even without actually completing the process of "validation."
The memo confirms the government's view that supposed "alien enemies" are "not entitled to a hearing, appeal or judicial review," that they are "ineligible for any relief or protection from removal," and that the preparations for deportation should commence immediately upon apprehension.
In contrast, the US Supreme Court has found that each individual detainee needs to be given notice with a reasonable amount of time to seek habeas relief, a legal procedure any detainee can use to challenge the legality of their detention.
On April 19, the US Supreme Court stepped in to block what the American Civil Liberties Union contended were imminent additional deportation flights under the Alien Enemies Act, which would have carried 177 Venezuelans from a detention center in Texas to El Salvador. The Supreme Court's unusual midnight order came as a lower court judge in Washington, DC, considered possible contempt charges against Trump administration officials for allegedly failing to respect key interim court rulings, including an order to turn planes carrying deportees around to return to the US.
"The last time this law was used was during the Second World War, before the development of a comprehensive body of international human rights law that seeks to prevent exactly the kinds of abuses the Trump administration is using the act to carry out," Kumar said. "If the administration continues to detain and deport Venezuelans under the act, the United States should be prepared for the United Nations and other governments who care about the rule of law to call it out."
