Welcome to Andy Worthington

My latest long read, a detailed account of Trump’s “war on migrants”, from the slew of “Presidential Actions” to Guantánamo and then, most monstrously, the deal with Nayib Bukele of El Salvador involving a one-way trip for Venezuelan migrants from the US to Bukele’s horrendous CECOT prison, a mega-Guantánamo, where men are held indefinitely without charge or trial in brutal conditions. I run through the legal challenges, up to and including the Supreme Court, and the horrendous reality that most of the men transferred are not gang members, as alleged, and that the Trump administration has no evidence that they are, that it doesn’t care, and that it is trying to hide this truth behind claims of “national security” secrecy. I also focus on two particularly egregious cases of injustice: that of Andry Hernandez Romero, a gay makeup artist from Venezuela, who was sent to the CECOT prison despite having an ongoing asylum claim in the US, and the case of Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, a Salvadorian resident of Maryland, who had protected status explicitly preventing his deportation to El Salvador, but who was sent to the CECOT prison because of an “administrative error”, and the truly chilling implications of the refusal of both the Trump administration and Bukele to bring him back, defying an order by the Supreme Court. As I say, “If the courts don’t prevail, and if the majority of the Justices in the Conservative-dominated Supreme Court don’t firmly grasp the enormity of how they are being snubbed and sidelined, and thoroughly assert their authority, the US will be entering truly perilous and lawless territory, in which no one — or, at least, no one who isn’t, essentially, a powerful white supremacist — will be safe.”

My assessment of the almost inestimably important case of Mahmoud Khalil, the legal US resident abducted on March 8 and taken to an ICE detention facility in Louisiana for deportation. Targeted for his involvement in student protests against Israel’s genocide in Gaza at Columbia University, Khalil’s abduction and his intended deportation are a glaring example of the Trump administration’s intention to shred the First Amendment to support Israel and its ongoing genocide in Gaza, although they are framing it as a “national security” matter. The Secretary of State, the pliant and dim-witted Marco Rubio, seeks to justify Khalil’s deportation by invoking a barely-used provision of the Immigration and Nationality Act (INA) of 1952, which gives him the authority to deport non-citizens if he has “reasonable ground to believe that [their] presence or activities in the United States would have potentially serious adverse foreign policy consequences for the United States.” If successful, the Trump administration will be able to deport any green card holder or visa holder who has engaged in any kind of non-violent opposition to Israel’s genocide, a startling development which would not only formally make the US into a dictatorship, in which freedom of speech (or even thought) is not allowed; it would also do so in the service of a foreign country, Israel. This is a position that, as I describe it, “lays bare how the Trump administration, like the Biden administration before it, prioritizes Israel’s interests over its own, in what really ought to be seen as a betrayal of America’s self-interest — or even as an act of treason.” Although an immigration judge rubber-stamped Khalil’s deportation on Friday, a legal challenge is ongoing in federal court in New Jersey, and we must all hope that it is successful, although it seems certain that it will be a protracted process that will last for many years. Its importance, however, cannot be underestimated. As I say, “It’s no exaggeration to say that the future of the US depends on it.”

Photos from, and my report about the coordinated monthly global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and in London and Brussels on April 2, 2025. The “First Wednesday” vigils have been taking place on the first Wednesday of every month for more than two years, and are, of course, continuing under Donald Trump, after he has cynically, cruelly and illegally decided to use the prison to hold migrants as part of the racist “war on migrants” that he declared when he took office.

Three weeks into Israel’s renewed genocidal assault on the Gaza Strip, and five weeks since all supplies of food, water, medicines and fuel were cut off, Israel’s primary objective is now nothing less than the extermination of the Palestinian people, with the only other option being a plan to military occupy the whole of Gaza, and to herd the remaining population into concentration camps. A third option being pushed by Israel, encouraged by Donald Trump, is for the “voluntary migration” of the entire population of two million people. I repeat my previous beliefs that this is a fantasy, because it would be politically suicidal for Egypt and Jordan, and because anti-refugee sentiment is so dominant in the west. However, I also pay close attention to a recent post on X by Dr. Ezzideen, who runs a clinic in Gaza, and who recently posted an important appeal for help, on behalf of the thousands of Palestinians in Gaza who responded enthusiastically to the rumor that other countries might take them in. As he stated in his post, “Please understand, we didn’t want to leave. We loved our land more than our lungs. But we love our children more. We love the ones we still have”, and “we are asking … for a way out.” As he also stated, “If you hear us, if you read our comments, if you hold power or voice or kindness, answer us. Not tomorrow. Not in theory. Now.” I raise Dr. Ezzideen’s request because those whose voices he is amplifying — those suffering unprecedented levels of deprivation and fear in Gaza — can truly see no end to the slaughter and destruction, and nor can I. Those countries and organizations that are not actively supporting Israel’s genocide have, like the UN, found themselves powerless to do anything to bring it to an end. Faced with only two options — death or imprisonment in a concentration camp — we are being asked to mobilize in support of an alternative that, although legally abhorrent, may also be the only guarantor of life: coming together, throughout the countries of the world, to push our governments to offer new homes to those who, otherwise, see nothing but death.

My latest — a detailed report about the formidable legal challenges to Donald Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which he used to deport 238 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador’s notorious CECOT prison, without providing any evidence that the men were, as he alleged, members of the Tren de Aragua gang. The flights took place on March 15, even though Judge James Boasberg, the Chief Judge of the District Court in Washington, D.C. had issued a temporary restraining order preventing the removal of any migrants, and I analyze the subsequent litigation, leading to a definitive ruling by Judge Boasberg on March 24, in which he refused to back down, and the ruling two days later, in the Circuit Court, supporting Judge Boasberg’s ruling, in which Judge Patricia Millett made the memorable observation — highlighted in the heading of my article — that Nazis held in the US in the Second War and subjected to the Alien Enemies Act had more rights than Venezuelan migrants right now under Donald Trump. The case has now been submitted to the Supreme Court, where, we must hope, it doesn’t prevail, as the heart of Trump’s cruel lawlessness is his insistence that he had the right to deport these men to a notoriously vile foreign prison without providing any evidence that any of them were gang members, as alleged, and without providing them with any form of due process. I also run through some of the many stories reported about these men, which would seem to establish definitively that they are not gang members, and conclude by comparing Trump’s actions to those of the Bush administration, when the “war on terror” prison at Guantánamo Bay was established 23 years ago, holding men and boys without evidence, and without any due process, which, as I explain, was, and is “a fast-track way to turn a country that claims to respect the rule into one that is indistinguishable from a brutal dictatorship.”

As the official death toll in Gaza passes 50,000, and the journalist Hossam Shabat is ruthlessly targeted and murdered by Israel, I examine how, when secondary deaths are taken into account, a more realistic death toll may be as high as 250,000. I also point out how almost 500 times as many Palestinian children (17,492) have been killed by Israel compared to the number of Israeli children (36) killed on October 7, and point out how, again, when secondary deaths are taken into account, that total may rise to over 87,000 Palestinian children, more than 2,400 times as many as the number of Israeli children killed on October 7. I also celebrate the life and work of Hossam Shabat, and discredit the lies told about him and the more than 220 journalists murdered by Israel, who have all been falsely accused of being Hamas operatives, and I also point out how these same lies have been applied to the more than 1,500 doctors and medical staff killed or disappeared into Israel’s horrendous prisons for Palestinians, and how, in addition, Israel continues to kill Hamas administrative officials from all walks of life, blatantly ignoring the fact that they were not connected with the military or involved in the October 7 attacks. With the resumption of the genocide eight days ago, I express my horror that this is happening, as it confirms how an entire country has lost its way, and now lives only to kill as many Palestinians as possible, and I condemn the western countries, and the western mainstream media, who largely continue to support Israel, and who, as a result, are dragging us all down into depraved and unprecedented depths of inhumanity. I end with Hossam Shabat’s final words, which I encourage you to read in full, and which end with the following request for our continued support: “I ask you now: do not stop speaking about Gaza. Do not let the world look away. Keep fighting, keep telling our stories — until Palestine is free.”

My report about the latest horrors in the “war on migrants” declared by Donald Trump when he took office two months ago, focused on his inappropriate invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport migrants, which also involved him flagrantly ignoring a temporary restraining order issued by a federal court judge preventing the use of the Act, and immediately sending 238 Venezuelan migrants to El Salvador, along with 23 alleged Salvadorian gang members, to be imprisoned in the notorious CECOT “mega-prison”, established by El Salvador’s hardline President Nayib Bukele. This unconscionable off-shoring — for money — of migrants to a reviled prison in another country took place, as with Trump’s recent use of Guantánamo to hold migrants, without any evidence having been provided to back up the administration’s assertions that these men were members of the notorious Tren de Aragua gang, with stories emerging, as at Guantánamo, that they were nothing more than men who had sought to get to the US to secure work, and that the entire basis of their alleged gang membership is a result of sweeping and imprecise assessments of the significance of their tattoos.

My report about the heartbreaking resumption of Israel’s genocide in the Gaza Strip, as numerous attacks in the early hours of March 18 killed over 400 Palestinians, mostly women and children, bringing the two-month ceasefire to a blood-soaked end. Although Israel has cynically tried to blame Hamas, the responsibility lies solely with Israel itself, whose flailing excuses cannot disguise the blunt truth that they never wanted to proceed to the second phase of the ceasefire, which required their full military withdrawal, and manufactured excuses to implement a “complete siege” on Gaza two weeks ago, and, yesterday, to once more begin slaughtering Palestinian civilians. Although Israel’s actions have been greeted with outrage around the world, the resumption of the genocide has Trump’s backing, the UN remains as powerless as ever, and the best hope for a resolute challenge is perhaps from within Israel itself, where the families of the remaining hostages are openly condemning the government — and have the support of a majority of the Israeli population.

My analysis of a devastating new report by the UN Independent International Commission of Inquiry on the Occupied Palestinian Territory, including East Jerusalem, and Israel, finding that Israel is guilty of “the crime against humanity of extermination”, through the deaths of women and girls “from complications related to pregnancy and childbirth due to the conditions imposed by the Israeli authorities which have denied access to reproductive healthcare.” The Commission also found that Israel has engaged in acts “amounting to two categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention”; namely, “deliberately inflicting conditions of life calculated to bring about the physical destruction of Palestinians and imposing measures intended to prevent births”, through its “systematic destruction of sexual and reproductive healthcare” in Gaza. The Commission also found Israel guilty of “the crime against humanity of murder and the war crime of wilful killing” for targeted killings of women, and for female fatalities on “an unprecedented scale” as the result of Israel “deliberately targeting residential buildings and using heavy explosives in densely populated areas.” The timing is appropriate, as, for the last two weeks, Israel has once more imposed a “complete siege” on Gaza, as part of deliberate attempt to sabotage the ceasefire in place since January 19, which can only compound the ongoing suffering of women and girls in Gaza. Condemnation has been widespread, but, as I note in conclusion, there is is still no clear way forward towards a lasting peace, and in the meantime the death toll will continue to rise; perhaps, as the renowned surgeon Dr. Ghassan Abu Sitta suggested in December, being as high as 300,000, of whom at least a third — 100,000 people in total — are women and girls.

Photos from, and my report about the coordinated monthly global vigils for the closure of Guantánamo that took place across the US and in London, Brussels and Mexico City on March 5, 2025. The “First Wednesday” vigils have been taking place on the first Wednesday of every month for the last two years, and are, of course, continuing under Donald Trump, after he has cynically, cruelly and illegally decided to use the prison to hold migrants as part of the racist “war on migrants” that he declared when he took office.