President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 on Saturday against the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), making gang members subject to immediate arrest and removal as “Alien Enemies” of the United States.
“[A]ll Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of TdA, are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies,” Trump proclaimed, citing the authority of the U.S. Constitution and laws “including the Alien Enemies Act.”
Alien Enemies would be “subject to immediate apprehension, detention, and removal, and further that they shall not be permitted residence in the United States,” according to the proclamation. In the proclamation, Trump stated that TdA members were waging war against the U.S. “directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela,” posing a threat to the nation’s peace and safety. This followed a January 20, 2025 executive order that classified TdA and other transnational cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
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).
The United States will pay a very low fee for them,… pic.twitter.com/tfsi8cgpD6
— Nayib Bukele (@nayibbukele) March 16, 2025
According to Trump’s proclamation, Venezuela had become a “hybrid criminal state” as the TdA and other transnational gangs increasingly took control of the country while flooding the U.S. with drugs and illegal migrants. Trump further accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and former Vice President Tareck El Aissami of sponsoring and supporting these criminal organizations, including TdA. “TdA grew significantly while Tareck El Aissami served as governor of Aragua between 2012 and 2017,” the proclamation states.
El Aissami is a fugitive in the U.S., having been declared “wanted” by the Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs on international drug trafficking charges. Along with several other Venezuelan officials, Maduro—who, according to Trump, “claims to act as Venezuela’s President”—was charged in 2020 with orchestrating a “narco-terrorism partnership” with Colombian rebels to weaponize cocaine against the American public.
