President Trump’s executive decree invoking the Act extraterrestrial enemies Targeted Venezuelans citizens 14 and over with links with the Tren of Aragua transnational gang, claiming that they “are likely to be apprehended, retained, secure and withdrawn as a foreign enum”.
Trump’s ordinance was quickly disputed in court, but the gang was an increasing source of concern for US officials in the past year. Biden administration labeled Tren of Aragua a transnational criminal organization in 2024, the New York police department highlighted its activity on the East Coast, and Trump’s White House began the process of designating It is a foreign terrorist organization in January.
Here is what we know about the gang:
A growing force of Venezuela
Tren of Aragua (Aragua train, or Aragua train) has roots In Tocorón prison in the state of northern Aragua in Venezuela, which the group leaders had transformed into a mini-city With a swimming pool, restaurants and a zoo. They would have recorded executions and torture there to maintain control of other prisoners.
While Venezuela’s economy collapsed and her government under President Nicolás Maduro has become more repressive, the group began to exploit vulnerable migrants. The influence of Tren de Aragua quickly spread to other parts of Latin America, and it has become one of the most violent and violent criminal organizations in the region, focusing on sexual traffic, human smuggling and drugs.
Colombian officials in 2022 accused the gang of at least 23 murders after the police began to find body parts in the bags. The alleged members were also apprehended in Chile And in Brazil, where the gang aligned itself with the capital of Primeiro Comando Da, one of the largest organized crime rings in this country.
Recent entry in the United States
Despite the many unknowns about its true size or sophistication in the United States, Tren of Aragua has become a real source of concern for the application of the law in the past two years.
In new YorkAccording to the police, the gang focused on theft of mobile phones; Detail flights, in particular high -end goods in department stores and flights while driving scooters; And dealing with a pink and powdery synthetic medication, known as TUI, which is often prevented from ketamine, MDMA or fentanyl.
Police also said that the gang would have recruited members of the interior of city migrants and had various conflicts or made alliances with other gangs.
In other parts of the country, people accused of affiliations with Tren of Aragua were billed with crimes such as shots And the trafficking in human beings, mainly targeting members of the Venezuelan community.
In May 2024, federal officials discovered a sex traffic ring in which they declared that the gang forced Venezuelan women to reimburse the debts to the smugglers who helped borders. The ring spread through Louisiana, Texas, Virginia, Florida and New Jersey, according to a complaint filed before the Federal Court.
The group’s presence in the United States was a flash point in the 2024 elections, while Trump accused the Biden administration of leaving criminals in the country. During a presidential debate, he falsely suggested that the gang had taken up Aurora, Colo.
A source of stigma for migrants
The Trump administration has repeatedly described Tren of Aragua as an objective of its expulsion efforts. Venezuelans migrants in search of asylum say that the presence of the gang and the speech surrounding it in the United States have created hurtful stigma and discrimination against them.
“All of us who have tattoos, they think we are thirty from Aragua,” said Evelyn Velasquez, a 33 -year -old Venezuelan woman, said to the New York Times in September. “I’m going to apply for a job and when they hear that we are venezuelans, they refuse us.”
In February, the White House press secretary said 10 men detainee and hosted in Guantánamo bayCuba was a member of Tren de Aragua. The sister of one of the men detained said he was not a member of a gang.
At the end of February, the Trump administration suddenly emptied two detention sites that the government had used to hold 177 Venezuelans from the United States, including a military prison building used to hold prisoners of terrorism. Federal officials has moved a second group Migrants this month.
