| Your weekly summary from the Council. |
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As the Trump administration moves to accelerate its mass deportation agenda, more U.S. citizens and legal residents are getting swept up in immigration enforcement actions. Wrongful detention and deportations will likely only increase under Trump’s supercharged immigration crackdown, with fewer guardrails to stop or reverse them. |
The Trump administration has sent hundreds of Venezuelans to El Salvador’s notorious maximum-security prison, the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT), under the Alien Enemies Act, alleging that they are members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.
One Venezuelan asylum seeker, going by the initials Y.A.P.A. for fear of his safety, has been concerned that the same fate could befall him. He is currently being held in U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention in Lumpkin, Georgia, after being apprehended in February 2025 while his asylum proceedings were still pending. The Trump administration has alleged, without evidence, that Y.A.P.A. is a “known associate” of Tren de Aragua.
The government’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, targeting alleged members of Tren de Aragua for rapid removal, is illegal. That law only applies when the U.S. has declared a war with another country, or another country has or is threatening to invade the U.S.
Last week, the American Immigration Council filed a habeas petition to prevent Y.A.P.A.’s transfer to CECOT without giving him a meaningful chance to go before a judge to review the government’s allegations against him.
Read more: Challenging Disappearance under the Alien Enemies Act Without Due Process |
Ms. Rodriguez, a U.S. citizen, has challenged the U.S. Department of State (DOS) and certain officials’ failure to meaningfully review substantial evidence that her husband, a Guatemalan citizen, is not a gang member. DOS and its officials denied his immigrant visa due to alleged membership in Barrio Azteca, a transnational gang. Information from highly credible experts on this gang, timely submitted after the visa denial, demonstrates that it is factually impossible for her husband to be a Barrio Azteca member.
As the government reconsiders her husband’s visa application, Ms. Rodriguez is seeking court declarations regarding the government’s unlawful action as well as meaningful review of the additional evidence pointing to the fact that her husband is not a gang member.
The Council, along with our partners, submitted filed a lawsuit on behalf of Ms. Rodriguez, arguing that DOS and agency officials violated agency regulations and the Administrative Procedure Act by failing to meaningfully review the additional evidence.
Read more: U.S. Citizen Challenges Department of State Failure to Meaningfully Reconsider Denial of Spouse’s Immigrant Visa; Bad Faith After Visa Interview |
“We’re seeing the Trump administration really pursuing an attack on core democratic values and using immigration and immigrants as the battleground for that attack...They are intentionally attacking those ideas by starting with the immigration system, by weaponizing immigration laws, by resurrecting old wartime authorities, by targeting non-citizens as the first line of attack on these rights. And while this is very clearly a threat to immigrant communities and non-citizens in our country, it really is a threat to these larger principles and all Americans.”
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