President Donald Trump has invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which will allow for the expedited removal of Venezuelan migrants who are suspected of being members of the Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang.
Trump’s presidential action, entitled “Invocation of the Alien Enemies Act Regarding the Invasion of The United States by Tren De Aragua,” states that 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.”
It states in part:
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.
Trump’s presidential action adds: “TdA is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States.”
Trump’s presidential action further 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 make these findings using the full extent of my authority to conduct the Nation’s foreign affairs under the Constitution. Based on these findings, and by the authority vested in me by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, including 50 U.S.C. 21, I proclaim that all 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.
On March 11, prior to the invocation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, four Democrat lawmakers wrote a letter addressed to Trump, stating that “migration is not an ‘invasion,’” and added that “proclaiming a rhetorical ‘invasion’ would degrade protections throughout the Constitution.”
That letter reads in part:
As a legal matter, migration is not an “invasion.” As courts have consistently held, an “invasion” under the Constitution requires “armed hostility from another political entity, such as another state or foreign country that is intending to overthrow the [] government.” Courts’ requirement of an armed attack is consistent with how the term “invasion” is used throughout the Constitution, alongside language like “insurrection” and “rebellion.” Proclaiming a rhetorical “invasion” would degrade protections throughout the Constitution—lowering the bar for suspending the writ of habeas corpus and even expanding the circumstances in which states may “engage in War” without the approval of the federal government. Under our constitutional design, these exceptional powers are reserved for times of armed conflict; they are not available to respond to migration or other non-military matters.
Breitbart News’s Neil Munro pointed out on Friday that the Democrats’ letter “did not mention the ‘predatory incursion’ aspect of the law.”
In October 2024, during a rally in Aurora, Colorado, then-candidate Trump announced “Operation Aurora” which, if he were elected, would target and dismantle migrant criminal gangs operating in the United States.
Breitbart News’s Christian K. Caruzo reported in August 2024 that TdA has terrorized American cities such as Atlanta, Georgia; Dallas, Texas; Miami, Florida; and New York, among others.
WATCH: National Security Expert Says Tren de Aragua Terrorist Organization Phenomenon Uniquely of Biden Administration