Did Kristi Noem just commit a war crime?

Parading around prisoners is against Geneva Convention.

It’s all just a TV show to the Trump administration:

AP:

TECOLUCA, El Salvador (AP) — U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem on Wednesday visited the high-security El Salvador prison where Venezuelans who the Trump administration alleges are gang members have been held since their removal from the United States. The tour included two crowded cell blocks, the armory and an isolation unit.

The Venezuelans were removed from the U.S. this month after Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and said the U.S. was being invaded by the Tren de Aragua gang. The Alien Enemies Act gives the president wartime powers and allows noncitizens to be deported without the opportunity to go before an immigration or federal court judge.

If the Venezuelans were deported to El Salvador using wartime authorities, then it sure seems that Noem — using what appears to be Venezuelan prisoners as props — just committed a war crime.

Here’s a 2022 Military Times story about Ukrainians parading Russian POWs before cameras:

Showing videos of POWs, regardless of the content or under what conditions it is obtained, is a violation of international law, experts say.

“Articles 13 and 14 of the third Geneva Convention protect POWs from insult and from becoming the object of public curiosity,” Leila Sadat, special adviser on crimes against humanity to the International Criminal Court, told Military Times.

The articles of the Geneva Convention that cover the rights of POWs require governments to protect them from “insults and public curiosity.”

“Likewise, prisoners of war must at all times be protected, particularly against acts of violence or intimidation and against insults and public curiosity,” the document reads.

The Trump Administration likes using wartime authorities as a way to evade checks and balances. It’s an authoritarian move, and no one should pretend otherwise. But if Trump’s team is going to claim wartime powers, let’s make sure it’s known when they violate the laws of war. They will surely give us plenty of opportunity.