President Donald Trump last week invoked a centuries-old law to swiftly detain and deport Venezuelan migrants suspected of belonging to the Tren de Aragua gang.
By activating the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, he effectively classifies these suspected gang members as wartime adversaries of the U.S. government, granting his administration the power to arrest, detain, and deport them without due process.
The order specifies that any Venezuelan citizen aged 14 or older who is a gang member, residing in the U.S. without naturalization or lawful permanent resident status, is “liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”
On Saturday, Trump triggered a seldom-used law for the first time since World War II—a law that has been enacted only four times since its creation. The president had already laid the groundwork earlier this year by signing an executive order in January that designated Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan prison gang, as a foreign terrorist organization.
This action labeled the gang as “an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy,” effectively setting the stage for the White House to invoke the Alien Enemies Act against them.
Under the White House plan, those subject to the invocation of this archaic law would bypass the usual immigration court process and be unable to claim asylum. However, a federal judge, anticipating the administration’s move, imposed a temporary block on the law’s usage, halting the removal of Venezuelan men for 14 days.
The Justice Department has since appealed the decision and, according to Secretary of State Marco Rubio, hundreds of Tren de Aragua members have already been deported, many of them to El Salvador.
“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,” Rubio wrote in an X post.
“President @nayibbukele is not only the strongest security leader in our region, he’s also a great friend of the U.S. Thank you!” he added.
Trump contended in his order that the gang is closely aligned and “indeed has infiltrated” Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s regime.
“Tren de Aragua 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,” Trump said in his order.
