President Trump’s govt order on Saturday invoking the Alien Enemies Act focused Venezuelan residents 14 years and older with ties to the transnational gang Tren de Aragua, saying they “are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and eliminated as Alien Enemies.”
Mr. Trump’s order was rapidly challenged in court docket, however the gang has been a rising supply of concern for U.S. officers during the last 12 months. The Biden administration labeled Tren de Aragua a transnational felony group in 2024, the New York Police Division has highlighted its exercise on the East Coast, and the Trump White Home started the method of designating it a international terrorist group in January.
Here’s what we all know concerning the gang:
A rising drive out of Venezuela
Tren de Aragua (Prepare of Aragua, or Aragua Prepare) has roots in Tocorón jail in Venezuela’s northern Aragua state, which the group’s leaders had reworked right into a mini-city with a pool, eating places and a zoo. They reportedly recorded executions and torture there to keep up management over different prisoners.
As Venezuela’s economic system collapsed and its authorities underneath President Nicolás Maduro turned extra repressive, the group started exploiting weak migrants. Tren de Aragua’s affect quickly stretched into different components of Latin America, and it developed into one of many area’s most violent and infamous felony organizations, specializing in intercourse trafficking, human smuggling and medicines.
Colombian officers in 2022 accused the gang of no less than 23 murders after the police started to search out physique components in baggage. Alleged members have additionally been apprehended in Chile and in Brazil, the place the gang aligned itself with Primeiro Comando da Capital, certainly one of that nation’s greatest organized crime rings.
A current entry to america
Regardless of the numerous unknowns about its true measurement or sophistication in america, Tren de Aragua has emerged as an actual supply of concern for legislation enforcement within the final couple of years.
In New York Metropolis, in line with the police the gang has targeted on stealing cellphones; retail thefts, particularly high-end merchandise in shops and thefts whereas driving scooters; and dealing a pink, powdery artificial drug, often known as Tusi, that’s usually laced with ketamine, MDMA or fentanyl.
The police have additionally mentioned that the gang is believed to recruit members from inside the town’s migrant shelters, and has variously had conflicts or made alliances with different gangs.
In different components of the nation, individuals accused of affiliations with Tren de Aragua have been charged with crimes comparable to shootings and human trafficking, principally concentrating on members of the Venezuelan neighborhood.
In Could 2024, federal officers uncovered a sex-trafficking ring through which they mentioned the gang was forcing Venezuelan girls into intercourse to repay money owed to smugglers who assisted with border crossings. The ring stretched throughout Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Florida and New Jersey, in line with a grievance filed in federal court docket.
The group’s presence in america was a flashpoint of the 2024 election, as Mr. Trump accused the Biden administration of letting criminals into the nation. Throughout a presidential debate, he falsely prompt that the gang had taken over Aurora, Colo.
A supply of stigma for migrants
The Trump administration has repeatedly described Tren de Aragua as a spotlight of its deportation efforts. Venezuelan migrants in search of asylum say the gang’s presence and the discourse round it in america have created hurtful stigma and discrimination towards them.
“Any of us who’ve tattoos, they assume that we’re Tren de Aragua,” mentioned Evelyn Velasquez, 33-year-old Venezuelan girl, instructed The New York Occasions in September. “I’ll go apply for a job and once they hear that we’re Venezuelan, they flip us down.”
In February, the White Home press secretary mentioned that 10 males detained and housed in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba had been members of Tren de Aragua. The sister of one of many males detained mentioned that he was not a gang member.
In late February, the Trump administration abruptly emptied two detention websites the federal government had used to carry 177 Venezuelans flown in from america, together with a army jail constructing previously used to carry terrorism detainees. Federal officers moved out a second group of migrants this month.
