238 Tren de Argua Gang Members Removed from US to El Salvador Using Alien Enemies Act

"Socalj" for Borderland Beat

One of the first actions taken following the foundation of the US State Dept designating several cartels and criminal organizations as foreign terrorists was announced in an Executive Action by US President Donald Trump.

Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 Saturday to target the designated foreign terrorist organization Tren de Aragua (TdA) just hours after a federal judge in Washington, D.C., ruled the law could not be used to deport five Venezuelans.

Soon after the EO was issued, a federal judge blocked any deportations in order to review the application of the law related to the recently FTO designated gang. However, nearly 250 alleged TdA gang members landed in El Salvador as part of the first removals. It is not known and is being determined right now if the planes had been sent prior to the blocked court order.

This follows of the heels of 29 Mexican cartel traffickers being expelled from Mexico to the US who had long requested many of their extraditions. 6 cartels were designated as FTO (Foreign Terrorist Organizations) alongside TdA and MS-13 last month. Several of those 'extradited' were members of cartels not designated by the US State Department.

The following details are from a cross section of news outlets and government press releases.

The president of El Salvador announced his country has accepted hundreds of Venezuelan gang members who were illegally living in the United States, as a U.S. judge moved to block deportations of illegal immigrants under a wartime law invoked by President Donald Trump.

"Today, the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country. They were immediately transferred to CECOT, the Terrorism Confinement Center, for a period of one year (renewable)," El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted to X on Sunday morning, accompanied by video footage of planes on a tarmac.

  

"On this occasion, the U.S. has also sent us 23 MS-13 members wanted by Salvadoran justice, including two ringleaders. One of them is a member of the criminal organization’s highest structure," he added.

His post included a video of the members being transferred off the plane to be transported to the Terrorism Confinement Center (CECOT). The U.S. and El Salvador reached an agreement last month where the U.S. will pay the country $6 million to hold around 300 gang members in the notorious prison, CECOT.

"We have sent 2 dangerous top MS-13 leaders plus 21 of its most wanted back to face justice in El Salvador. Also, as promised by @POTUS, we sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua which El Salvador has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars. President @nayibbukele is not only the strongest security leader in our region, he’s also a great friend of the U.S. Thank you!" wrote Marco Rubio on X.

 

TdA Proclamation

"All Venezuelan citizens 14 years or older who are members of TdA, are within the U.S. and are not naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the U.S. may be apprehended, restrained, secured and removed as alien enemies," according to the proclamation.

"Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States. 

TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Nicolas Maduro regime-sponsored, narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortions, and human, drug, and weapons trafficking. 

TdA has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States."

Venezuela is listed as a do not travel country which could lead to full visa suspension.

Judge Blocks Order

The American Civil Liberties Union filed a lawsuit on Saturday seeking to block President Trump from invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, an obscure law that could allow the government to remove unauthorized immigrants while providing them little due process.

Judge James E. Boasberg said at a hearing on Saturday that he intended to issue a broad temporary order preventing the Trump administration from using the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport any “noncitizens in U.S. custody.”

He said that the terms “invasion” and “predatory incursion” in the law “really relate to hostile acts perpetrated by enemy nations.”

He said that any flights that had departed with people under the order needed to return to the United States “however that’s accomplished — whether turning around the plane or not.” He urged the government: “This is something you need to make sure is complied with immediately.”

2 Flights of Gang Members

Lee Gelernt, a lawyer for the American Civil Liberties Union, said in an interview that he believed two flights carrying Venezuelan immigrants out of the country under President Trump’s order were “in the air” on Saturday evening. 

During the hearing, Judge James E. Boasberg said he was ordering the government to turn flights around given “information, unrebutted by the government, that flights are actively departing.”

Venezuela's Narco State

TdA is closely aligned with, and indeed has infiltrated, the Maduro regime, including its military and law enforcement apparatus. TdA grew significantly while Tareck El Aissami served as governor of Aragua between 2012 and 2017. In 2017, El Aissami was appointed as Vice President of Venezuela. Soon thereafter, the United States Department of the Treasury designated El Aissami as a Specially Designated Narcotics Trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, 21 U.S.C. 1901 et seq. El Aissami is currently a United States fugitive facing charges arising from his violations of United States sanctions triggered by his Department of the Treasury designation.

The Treasury Department designated El Aissami a specially designated narcotics trafficker under the Foreign Narcotics Kingpin Designation Act, and he remains a U.S. fugitive.

In 2020, Maduro and other regime members were charged with narcoterrorism and other crimes in an alleged "plot against America." A failed coup attempt in Venezuela was believed to have been aided by or organized with CIA support.

Like El Aissami, Nicolas Maduro, who claims to act as Venezuela’s President and asserts control over the security forces and other authorities in Venezuela, also maintains close ties to regime-sponsored narco-terrorists. Maduro leads the regime-sponsored enterprise Cártel de los Soles, which coordinates with and relies on TdA and other organizations to carry out its objective of using illegal narcotics as a weapon to “flood” the United States. In 2020, Maduro and other regime members were charged with narcoterrorism and other crimes in connection with this plot against America.

Over the years, Venezuelan national and local authorities have ceded ever-greater control over their territories to transnational criminal organizations, including TdA. The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States. Indeed, in December 2024, INTERPOL Washington confirmed: “Tren de Aragua has emerged as a significant threat to the United States as it infiltrates migration flows from Venezuela.” Evidence irrefutably demonstrates that TdA has invaded the United States and continues to invade, attempt to invade, and threaten to invade the country; perpetrated irregular warfare within the country; and used drug trafficking as a weapon against our citizens.

Based upon a review of TdA’s activities, and in consultation with the Attorney General and the Secretary of the Treasury, on February 20, 2025, acting pursuant to the authority in 8 U.S.C. 1189, the Secretary of State designated TdA as a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

Alien Enemies Act of 1798

With invoking the act, Trump stated:

I find and declare that TdA is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States. TdA is undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela. 

I direct that all Alien Enemies described in section 1 of this proclamation are subject to immediate apprehension, detention, and removal, and further that they shall not be permitted residence in the United States.

Pursuant to the Alien Enemies Act, the Attorney General and the Secretary of Homeland Security shall, consistent with applicable law, apprehend, restrain, secure, and remove every Alien Enemy described in section 1 of this proclamation. The Secretary of Homeland Security retains discretion to apprehend and remove any Alien Enemy under any separate authority.

All executive departments and agencies (agencies) shall collaborate with law enforcement officials of the United States and with appropriate State, local, and tribal officials, to use all lawful means to apprehend, restrain, secure, and remove Alien Enemies described in section 1 of this proclamation.

No Alien Enemy described in section 1 of this proclamation shall enter, attempt to enter, or be found within any territory subject to the jurisdiction of the United States. Any such Alien Enemy who enters, attempts to enter, or is found within such territory shall be immediately apprehended and detained until removed from the United States. All such Alien Enemies, wherever found within any territory subject to the jurisdiction of the United States, are subject to summary apprehension.

Alien Enemies apprehended pursuant to this proclamation shall be subject to detention until removed from the United States in such place of detention as may be directed by the officers responsible for the execution of these regulations.

Alien Enemies shall be subject to removal to any such location as may be directed by the officers responsible for the execution of these regulations consistent with applicable law.

All property in the possession of, or traceable to, an Alien Enemy, which is used, intended to be used, or is commonly used to perpetrate the hostile activity and irregular warfare of TdA, along with evidence of such hostile activity and irregular warfare, shall be subject to seizure and forfeiture.

Sources White House, NPR, Reuters, NY Times, Fox News, X

Categories: Donald Trump, el salvador, tren de aragua