[Music] In March of this year, the Trump administration chose to deport almost 140 Venezuelans, claiming power to do so under a law from 1798 called the Alien Enemies Act, which allows persons to be removed from the country during times of war or an invasion.

And the Trump administration was claiming that the presence of these Venezuelan persons who the Trump administration claimed were gang members was some kind of of an invasion.

That was wrong for two reasons.

It was wrong one because it wasn't an invasion in the sense of that law, the Alien Enemies Act, but it was also wrong because these primarily young men from Venezuela were never given any opportunity in a court or someplace else to show that they weren't even members of uh of a gang.

they were completely deprived of their rights to to due process and and to challenge that.

So it was wrong in two different ways.

So I live halftime in El Salvador and I have watched that country which has unfortunately moved more and more becoming an authoritarian country.

The current president Naim Boule has captured the presidency and has all control over the legislature and the Supreme Court.

And he made this bargain with the United States where he said he would open up his mega prison in the country if Donald Trump wanted to deport people from any other country in in the world.

and Donald Trump chose to send Venezuelans.

In return, Na Boule receive his government, I should say, received um $6 million reportedly.

But he also the US government sending back some Salvador and gang members who were being criminally charged in the United States and were potentially going to testify about corrupt bargains that Na Boule, the president of El Salvador, had made with those gangs.

corrupt bargains to help him get elected and corrupt bargains to lower the homicide rate in the country in return for benefits in prison.

What do you see in this situation where some of these informants, people who are testifying and they are protected by the laws of the United States and shouldn't they are you know betrayed by our laws and sent to a government that is as you say demonstrating total state of dictatorship.

Yes.

the the US Justice Department had been investigating MS-13, this terrible gang that inflicts pain both in El Salvador and in the United States.

And that investigation had led to leaders of that gang being indicted in the state in federal court in in New York.

And some of those gang members had agreed to testify against the other members of the gang and to testify about uh corrupt bargains they'd made with uh the government of of El Salvador.

Well, the government of El Salvador and President Boule didn't want that didn't want that testimony to to come out.

so persuaded Marco Rubio, our Secretary of State, and the Trump administration to send those witnesses back to El Salvador rather than have them testify in a US court.

And in return, El Salvador said, "And if you want to send us your prisoners that you want us to put in to our prisons, we're happy to do that, too."

It's just a corrupt bargain by both sides all the way around.

what consequences, you know, are coming after this resolution for future cases.

If the government shows that it's willing to break those promises, it's not going to get that kind of cooperation and it makes it harder to do these kinds of investigations that are important in the future.

And what does he say about our federal government uh to um on regards uh making deals with a president like Boule?

I think what we are seeing with the Trump administration is that it has a fondness for authoritarian governments and whether it is Na Boule who was the first president from Latin America to be invited to the White House after President Trump won reelection in 2024.

These are relationships that are only built around power.

They are not built around human rights or respect for for human rights that human rights doesn't seem to have any place in US foreign policy under this current government.

What is the legal participation at this moment specifically about this established relationship and this breaking of civil rights of so many in the deal and the deals between these two presidencies?

National ACLU has been advocating for the Venezuelans who were sent to the prison in in El Salvador.

After they were sent to the prison in El Salvador, another deal got made and the Venezuelans were al allowed to go to Venezuela, released from the prison.

But for many of them, they were fleeing Venezuela.

So the ACLU is advocating for them to be able to come back to the United States to get the due process.

I think we have to expect to see advocacy for for rights taking place in at least three different places.

One is in the courts.

Lawyers continue to advocate for the rights guaranteed by the constitution.

The second is at the polling places.

There will be elections for Congress in 2026 that may change the balance of power in the United States House of Representatives and the Senate.

And then the third place is in the streets in demonstrations that show that there are millions of people who have a different view, a different vision of what democracy can be in the United States.

And those are things that are shared not just by the people in the United States, but views of of people in El Salvador and in Latin America throughout the world.

These are basic fundamental human rights that people advocate for against what authoritarians want to accomplish.

I hope that people realize just what a crisis we are currently facing that may be more severe than you know during my lifetime the crisis of erosion of democratic protections in the United States.

I've watched them evaporate in the country of of El Salvador.

um and they evaporated very quickly and there are now tens of thousands of innocent people in prisons in El Salvador.

I hope and trust that the United States does not follow that same direction.

I think everyone should look for a way to get involved and that doesn't mean necessarily getting involved politically.

It means caring for your community, caring for your neighborhood.

Each person deserving of respect is imbued with the set of rights.

Educate yourself and find a way that you can help care for the neighbors in your community.

the no kings rallies that we just saw with 7 million people across the United States coming out, no violence at all.

Instead, it was a demonstration of that key value of solidarity.

I do think that people are one of the positives is people recognizing the need for solidarity and reaching out and letting know Latino and Latina neighbors that you are not alone.

To the extent that message is heard and shared, that that is a positive.

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