UN Experts Alarmed at Illegal Deportations from the United States to El Salvador

On April 30, 2025, UN human rights experts expressed deep concern at apparently unlawful deportations of over 250 Venezuelan and Salvadorian men from the U.S. to El Salvador. The experts stated that the seeming misapplication of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 denies due process contrary to international human rights law, resulting in arbitrary deportations based on inadequate summary decisions. Furthermore, the international law duty of non-refoulement prohibits deporting any person to a place where there is a substantial risk of arbitrary deprivation of life, torture and/or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, enforced disappearance, arbitrary detention, unfair trial or other irreparable harm. This generates further concerns about El Salvador’s prisons, where there have been reports of deaths, torture, and inhumane conditions.

“We call on the Salvadoran Government to allow independent monitoring bodies immediate and unfettered access to prisons holding the deportees,” the experts said. They also expressed alarm at the unclear legal basis for the detention of the deportees in El Salvador and the lack of effective remedies, and noted that those imprisoned in El Salvador have been denied the right to communicate with and be visited by their families. The US and El Salvador have also refused to return individuals found by US courts to have been illegally deported. “We call on both Governments to cooperate to return them to the US, as well as anyone else who was unlawfully deported and wishes to go back,” the experts said. The experts further criticized U.S. abuse of the Alien Enemies Act outside of its legal criteria as well as its abuse of “terrorist” organization designations. “We strongly urge the US Government to stop using the Alien Enemies Act or any other law to summarily deport people,” the experts said. “Deportations must stop until these international legal guarantees are respected.”

The full press release by the UN Experts may be read here.