Latest news with #1798AlienEnemiesAct
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Miami Herald
5 days ago
- Politics
- Miami Herald
Venezuela weaponized Tren de Aragua gang to hurt the U.S., FBI warned in January
A newly surfaced FBI memorandum directly challenges earlier U.S. intelligence assessments and asserts that the Venezuelan regime is actively enabling the expansion of Tren de Aragua, the South American country's most powerful transnational criminal organization, in a campaign to destabilize neighboring countries and the United States. The January 2025 memo, first reported this week by The New York Times, presents a stark portrait of a regime willing to export violence, organized crime and repression to maintain power and gain geopolitical leverage. It describes a coordinated strategy by the Nicolas Maduro government to release violent criminals, facilitate their migration abroad, and deploy them as unofficial enforcers—not only across Latin America but increasingly in U.S. cities. The memo was submitted by the Trump administration on Thursday to a federal judge in Texas overseeing one of a growing number of lawsuits challenging the government's use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged members of the gang to a notorious mega-prison in El Salvador. According to the FBI, the campaign sought to generate chaos, stretch law enforcement capacity and intimidate Venezuelan dissidents living in exile. Once confined to prison networks in Venezuela's Aragua state, TDA has grown into a sprawling, multinational criminal syndicate. Now classified as a 'megagang,' the group operates across Latin America and, according to U.S. law enforcement, has established a presence in several American cities. The FBI believes this expansion is deliberate. 'Some Venezuelan government officials likely facilitate the migration of TDA members… to advance the Maduro regime's objective of undermining public safety in the United States,' the memo states. The assessment, supported by multiple sources, carries a 'medium confidence' rating due to limitations in source access and corroboration. 'As of November 2023, the Venezuelan government had strategically managed and financed TDA as part of a broader foreign policy goal: to create internal security and social problems for the United States,' the report reads. It adds that Maduro viewed the migrant crisis and social unrest in cities like New York and Chicago as evidence of TDA's success in creating political and security challenges he could use as leverage in sanctions negotiations with Washington. This assessment lends weight to a controversial assertion made by President Donald Trump, who recently invoked wartime powers to expedite the deportation of suspected gang members to a high-security facility in El Salvador. The move relied on the Alien Enemies Act of 1798—a rarely used wartime statute—to bypass standard legal protections. Although Trump initially used the act to detain and transfer Venezuelans linked to gangs, federal courts have since blocked the policy. Opposition leaders in Venezuela, including María Corina Machado, have long accused Maduro and top official Diosdado Cabello of masterminding TDA's rise. These accusations gained renewed attention in March, when Trump cited them as justification for invoking the wartime statute. The FBI report contradicts a previously released U.S. National Intelligence Council assessment, which concluded in April 2024 that while Venezuela's permissive environment enables TDA's operations, the Maduro regime likely does not exert direct control over the gang. 'While Venezuela's permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movements to or operations in the United States,' the NIC's April 7 memo stated. It added: 'This judgment is based on Venezuelan law enforcement actions indicating the regime treats TDA as a threat; an uneasy mix of cooperation and confrontation—rather than top-down control—characterizes the regime's ties to armed groups; and the decentralized structure of TDA would make a direct command relationship logistically difficult.' The FBI report — which had been drafted earlier than the National Intelligence Council assessment but only made public this week —presents a much different view. According to the bureau's findings, senior Venezuelan officials are involved in TDA's daily operations, with 'strategic decision-making regarding government use of TDA' reportedly passing through Maduro himself. The president allegedly relies on trusted intermediaries to insulate himself from public links to the group. TDA's criminal portfolio includes drug trafficking, extortion, human smuggling and contract killings. But, as outlined in the memo, its most insidious role is as a covert arm of Venezuela's security state—used to assassinate dissidents, threaten exiled opposition figures, and weaponize migration as a geopolitical tool. The report links this strategy to the legacy of former President Hugo Chávez, who helped institutionalize the use of colectivos—state-sponsored paramilitary groups—for domestic repression. Now, according to the FBI, that same tactic has been exported. Among the memo's most alarming revelations is the claim that high-ranking officials—such as María Iris Varela Rangel, who oversaw Venezuela's prison system, and Diosdado Cabello—have directly orchestrated the release and overseas deployment of TDA operatives. As of February 2024, Varela had reportedly been 'deliberately releasing members of TDA from the prison systems,' encouraging them to leave the country for the United States and, in some cases, assisting with their travel. In at least one instance, TDA leaders were provided with relocation plans for their families, further suggesting a state-sanctioned strategy to extend the gang's global footprint. For Venezuelan exiles who once saw countries like the U.S., Colombia, and Chile as safe havens, the FBI warns those sanctuaries may no longer be secure. Over the next 6 to 18 months, the bureau predicts Venezuelan officials will 'leverage TDA members in the United States as proxy actors to threaten, abduct, and kill members of the Venezuelan diaspora.' That grim forecast may have already begun to materialize. In February 2024, a former Venezuelan army lieutenant and vocal Maduro critic was abducted and killed in Chile. The FBI believes the attack was orchestrated by Venezuelan intelligence and carried out by TDA members. Chilean authorities confirmed the victim had no criminal ties, contradicting Venezuelan claims he was involved in a plot to assassinate Maduro. The regime has a pattern of blaming foreign intelligence services for acts of violence it orchestrates, the memo adds—allowing it to deny responsibility while continuing transnational repression. The implications for U.S. cities are significant. The FBI explicitly names New York and Chicago as urban centers where TDA's presence has contributed to 'border chaos and widespread problems.' The threat, the report emphasizes, is not just criminal but political, with the gang's activities serving the strategic purpose of pressuring the U.S. government on sanctions and immigration policy. In response, the FBI calls for enhanced coordination among federal, state, and local law enforcement, increased education on TDA tactics, and robust intelligence-sharing protocols. Legal attachés across the Americas have reportedly built strong partnerships with regional police forces—networks the FBI believes are critical to tracking TDA across borders. Still, the bureau acknowledges ongoing challenges. Proving direct coordination between the gang and the Venezuelan state remains complex. Maduro's use of intermediaries makes finding evidence difficult, and some intelligence sources may be biased, hoping their cooperation will bolster asylum claims. Even so, the report concludes that consistent patterns of state-enabled violence and repression suggest a deliberate strategy with dangerous transnational implications. The FBI assessment concludes that Venezuela has morphed into a 'hybrid criminal state,' where the boundaries between government and organized crime are deliberately blurred. Criminal groups act as de facto authorities in some regions, while the state leverages their violence for political ends. That evolution mirrors trends seen in other fragile states where the rule of law has eroded — but with one key difference: Venezuela's criminal strategy is explicitly transnational, with ambitions that extend far beyond its borders. While invoking the special war powers in March, Trump claimed that Maduro deliberately sent TDA members to the U.S. as part of an 'organized aggression' aimed at destabilizing the country. He asserted that many gang members had infiltrated the U.S. under orders from Maduro and Cabello, describing their presence as an act of 'irregular warfare.' The administration had previously designated Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, while the Justice Department has several indictments accusing Maduro, Cabello and othe top regime members of leading Venezuela's top narco-trafficking group known as the Soles Cartel. 'The regime is perpetrating an invasion and predatory incursion into the United States, which poses a substantial danger,' Trump said in his March proclamation. 'TdA operates in conjunction with the Cartel de los Soles, the Nicolás Maduro regime-sponsored narco-terrorist enterprise based in Venezuela, and commits brutal crimes including murder, kidnapping, extortion, and trafficking of humans, drugs, and weapons.'
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Court blocks Trump, for now, in another case of a questionably detained immigrant
His lawyers call him Y.A.P.A., a shielded name based on his initials, because they fear what might happen if he's sent back to Venezuela. He's a 34-year-old activist for humanitarian causes who drew the ire of the Maduro regime in Venezuela. In September of 2022, he crossed the U.S. southern border, was met by U.S. Border Control officers and asked for asylum. While awaiting an asylum ruling, he obtained a work permit and held a job in food service at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, delivered takeout food and had other odd jobs. He reported to his scheduled hearings, all of them continued. He found a place to stay and had a girlfriend. All was going well until February, when he was picked up in Wilmington by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officers for allegedly being part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. He denies any connection to the gang and the government said in court documents that it cannot validate that he is a member. He is left with the difficult and perhaps impossible task of proving he is not. He has been in Stewart Detention Center, an overcrowded private prison in Georgia, since February, with no immediate prospect of getting out. He has spent months fearing he might be deported without due process to CECOT, El Salvador's terrorism confinement center, or sent off to another country or returned to Venezuela. This week, he had a small victory in his odyssey through the slanted system of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump. A federal district court judge in Georgia said Y.A.P.A. couldn't be sent to a foreign prison or returned to Venezuela without a chance to refute the government's allegations against him. Judge Clay Land said that the right to due process extends to all who face detention or removal by the federal government. 'This foundational principle is part of what has made, and will continue to make, America great,' he said. 'Consistent with the rule of law, it is the court's job to make sure, without fear or favor, that we adhere to these principles.' Rebecca Cassler, an attorney at the American Immigration Council, which has taken up Y.A.P.A.'s cause, said in a statement, 'This ruling affirms that our client, like every person in the United States, has a fundamental right to due process and a fair day in court.' The ruling blocks the Trump administration's claim that it can deport non-citizens without due process under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. The law allows for the removal of people deemed to be enemies during times of war or invasion. The administration says Tren de Aragua is an invading force connected to the Venezuelan government, although a U.S intelligence report said that's untrue. Cassler said, 'Thanks to this ruling, for now there is one less person who has to live in fear of being whisked away to CECOT in the middle of the night and held there indefinitely on behalf of the United States.' Still, a Venezuelan immigrant being plucked from the streets of Wilmington and imprisoned remains an unresolved injustice. 'He was complying with everything the government asked him to do,' said his immigration attorney, Keli Reynolds. 'He reported his address changes. He had a work authorization and then all of the sudden in February they started picking up Venezuelans and alleging out of nowhere they are members of Tren de Aragua. It's quite shocking.' Reynolds thinks ICE swept up Venezuelan immigrants under a blanket claim of membership in Tren de Aragua because Trump was unhappy with the pace of deportations. Now her client has to prove he's not what ICE says he is. 'It's terrifying to have to prove a negative,' she said. 'It's not like people from Tren de Aragua are going to come in and say, 'He's not one of us.' ' Kaelyn Phillips, a U.S. citizen, met Y.A.P.A. last summer and became his partner. She has visited him at the Georgia detention center, where they were separated by a clear plastic barrier and spoke by phone. When he was denied bond to get out because of his alleged gang connection, Phillips said, 'It totally broke him. He went into shock and denial. He said, 'God will get me out of here.' ' Phillips said Y.A.P.A. has two sisters and nephews living in Wilmington and no criminal record in Venezuela or the U.S. The claims that he is a gang member, she said, 'are not charges, they are allegations,' that the government has not provided evidence to support and he has had no opportunity to refute. She said he was lucky he was not among the group of Venezuelan immigrants sent to an El Salvador prison in March without due process and with no prospect of release. 'We are a country of immigrants,' she said. 'Why are we making war on immigrants?' Ned Barnett is an opinion writer for McClatchy and the News & Observer of Raleigh.
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
ICE unjustly swept him up in NC, now he's trapped in Trump's deportation pipeline
His lawyers call him Y.A.P.A., a shielded name based on his initials, because they fear what might happen if he's sent back to Venezuela. He's a 34-year-old activist for humanitarian causes who drew the ire of the Maduro regime in Venezuela. In September of 2022, he crossed the U.S. southern border, was met by U.S. Border Control officers and asked for asylum. While awaiting an asylum ruling, he obtained a work permit and held a job in food service at the University of North Carolina at Wilmington, delivered takeout food and had other odd jobs. He reported to his scheduled hearings, all of them continued. He found a place to stay and had a girlfriend. All was going well until February, when he was picked up in Wilmington by Immigration and Custom Enforcement (ICE) officers for allegedly being part of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. He denies any connection to the gang and the government said in court documents that it cannot validate that he is a member. He is left with the difficult and perhaps impossible task of proving he is not. He has been in Stewart Detention Center, an overcrowded private prison in Georgia, since February, with no immediate prospect of getting out. He has spent months fearing he might be deported without due process to CECOT, El Salvador's terrorism confinement center, or sent off to another country or returned to Venezuela. This week, he had a small victory in his odyssey through the slanted system of immigration enforcement under President Donald Trump. A federal district court judge in Georgia said Y.A.P.A. couldn't be sent to a foreign prison or returned to Venezuela without a chance to refute the government's allegations against him. Judge Clay Land said that the right to due process extends to all who face detention or removal by the federal government. 'This foundational principle is part of what has made, and will continue to make, America great,' he said. 'Consistent with the rule of law, it is the court's job to make sure, without fear or favor, that we adhere to these principles.' Rebecca Cassler, an attorney at the American Immigration Council, which has taken up Y.A.P.A.'s cause, said in a statement, 'This ruling affirms that our client, like every person in the United States, has a fundamental right to due process and a fair day in court.' The ruling blocks the Trump administration's claim that it can deport non-citizens without due process under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. The law allows for the removal of people deemed to be enemies during times of war or invasion. The administration says Tren de Aragua is an invading force connected to the Venezuelan government, although a U.S intelligence report said that's untrue. Cassler said, 'Thanks to this ruling, for now there is one less person who has to live in fear of being whisked away to CECOT in the middle of the night and held there indefinitely on behalf of the United States.' Still, a Venezuelan immigrant being plucked from the streets of Wilmington and imprisoned remains an unresolved injustice. 'He was complying with everything the government asked him to do,' said his immigration attorney, Keli Reynolds. 'He reported his address changes. He had a work authorization and then all of the sudden in February they started picking up Venezuelans and alleging out of nowhere they are members of Tren de Aragua. It's quite shocking.' Reynolds thinks ICE swept up Venezuelan immigrants under a blanket claim of membership in Tren de Aragua because Trump was unhappy with the pace of deportations. Now her client has to prove he's not what ICE says he is. 'It's terrifying to have to prove a negative,' she said. 'It's not like people from Tren de Aragua are going to come in and say, 'He's not one of us.' ' Kaelyn Phillips, a U.S. citizen, met Y.A.P.A. last summer and became his partner. She has visited him at the Georgia detention center, where they were separated by a clear plastic barrier and spoke by phone. When he was denied bond to get out because of his alleged gang connection, Phillips said, 'It totally broke him. He went into shock and denial. He said, 'God will get me out of here.' ' Phillips said Y.A.P.A. has two sisters and nephews living in Wilmington and no criminal record in Venezuela or the U.S. The claims that he is a gang member, she said, 'are not charges, they are allegations,' that the government has not provided evidence to support and he has had no opportunity to refute. She said he was lucky he was not among the group of Venezuelan immigrants sent to an El Salvador prison in March without due process and with no prospect of release. 'We are a country of immigrants,' she said. 'Why are we making war on immigrants?' Associate opinion editor Ned Barnett can be reached at 919-404-7583, or nbarnett@
IOL News
23-05-2025
- Politics
- IOL News
Trump's Deportations Betray American Ideals
On the 20th of January 2025, Donald Trump was inaugurated for his second and final term as President of the United States, the 'leader of the free world'. However, today there are few characteristics that can define the USA as free, especially for non-white citizens or migrants. Over the 115 days in his Presidency the dynamics of the current world order has adjusted relationships and methods of operations almost on a daily occurrence. Most notably there have been an ongoing series of tariffs imposed on various sectors, commodities and countries. Some brief examples include steel and aluminum, cars, films, computers and smartphones. The countries that have received tariffs include China, Mexico, Canada and the UK. The justification for these substantial measures is centered in nationalism, by advancing domestically produced goods and eliminating the perception of being 'cheated' by foreign entities. However, this rhetoric of being excluded and not understanding the real impact behind tariffs is not being extended to targeting human beings. This has resulted in the deportation of 142,000 individuals between the 20th of January and the 29th of April. Furthermore, to add insult to injury, in March President Trump invoked the 1798 Alien Enemies Act which allows the president to detain or deport natives and citizens of an 'enemy' nation. The use of this legislation is not only outdated, imposed outside of its jurisdiction, but is also dangerous to countless individuals and their families. The law originally was designed for wartime threats as part of the Alien and Sedition Acts, aimed to strengthen national security against tension with France during the Quasi-War. These actions pose major concerns beginning with the fact that the law invoked outside of a declared war circumvents the strides that human rights standards have made, racially profiling individuals and potentially leans on being unconstitutional for mass deportation without due process. Bypassing the legal safeguards for individuals and labeling them as 'enemies' raises red flags for future immigration and asylum scenarios, leaving one to ponder who is the real enemy whom tears families apart across borders, and oftentimes to lands that they have no affiliation with, such as the case with over 100 Venezuelans who are believed to be located in Cecot, a massive prison in El Salvador. To exacerbate the challenges, third-country detentions raise significant problems revolving around accountability and legal responsibility, especially considering that according to the families, the detainees are being treated and labelled as violent criminals and terrorists without any court judgements. Furthermore, there is yet to be an official publicised list of detainees from the US or Salvadoran authorities, while their legal statuses remain unclear. Such secrecy is extremely concerning because of the human rights abuses, legal responsibility, as well as the moral and political consequences for the US's global standing. For much of President Trump's campaigning he emphasised that he is 'for the people', yet such actions towards the Venezuelans and Salavorans directly opposes the president's declaration, the actions damage the US's credibility as a defender of human rights and its democratic values, and may further weaken the already strained relationship the country has with other Latin American countries. Moreover, there are reports that for many of these detainees, they were not informed of the intention behind the US's government to deport them to a third country where many were denied access to legal counsel, thereby disenfranchising a fair opportunity to contest their deportation, effectively constituting a forced expulsion. Family members of the detainees are without any information about their loved ones' whereabouts and this highlights the US's severe lack in transparency and accountability. The president of the USA has a very colourful legal past in his personal capacity, with slogans of 'Make America Great Again', can one truly be surprised what foreign individuals are being treated with this level of disdain and dehumanisation, particularly from a country that has been built off of slavery and immigrants? But as a global community, what are we doing for these people and for those whose stories have not yet seen the front pages of our newspapers? The reality is the world has a tendency to look to powerful Western countries such as the USA as pillars of moral, political and just practice, but it could be argued that these foundational principles are only applied when it is convenient. The concept of a 'leader of the free world' is incompatible with practices that undermine individuals' presumption of innocence and result in criminalisation without due process; human rights should not be contingent on nationality or immigration status. Given these actions, the future of America's global image as a defender of human rights and the people will be very contentious. By Banthati Sekwala: Associate at BRICS+ Consulting Group Egyptian and South African Specialist **The Views expressed do not necessarily reflect the views of Independent Media or IOL. ** MORE ARTICLES ON OUR WEBSITE ** Follow @brics_daily on Twitter for daily BRICS+ updates
Yahoo
21-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Vance says Roberts is ‘profoundly wrong' about judiciary's role to check executive branch
Vice President JD Vance called Chief Justice John Roberts' comments earlier this month that the judiciary's role is to check the executive branch a 'profoundly wrong sentiment' and said the courts should be 'deferential' to the president, particularly when it comes to immigration. 'I thought that was a profoundly wrong sentiment. That's one half of his job, the other half of his job is to check the excesses of his own branch. And you cannot have a country where the American people keep on electing immigration enforcement and the courts tell the American people they're not allowed to have what they voted for,' Vance told New York Times opinion columnist Ross Douthat on the 'Interesting Times' podcast, which was taped on Monday. Vance was responding to Roberts' remarks at an event in Buffalo, New York, where the chief justice stressed the importance of judicial independence. 'The judiciary is a coequal branch of government, separate from the others with the authority to interpret the Constitution as law, and strike down, obviously, acts of Congress or acts of the president,' Roberts said at the event. The judiciary's role, Roberts added, is to 'decide cases but, in the course of that, check the excesses of Congress or of the executive and that does require a degree of independence.' Vance's interview with The Times, which was taped in Rome after he attended the inaugural mass for Pope Leo XIV, also delved into the vice president's Catholic faith and how it shapes his role as a political leader. While Vance said he believes the administration has 'an obligation to treat people humanely,' he also said it's an 'open question' how much due process is 'due' to undocumented immigrants. 'I've obviously expressed public frustration on this, which is yes, illegal immigrants, by virtue of being in the United States, are entitled to some due process,' Vance said. 'But the amount of process that is due and how you enforce those legislative standards and how you actually bring them to bear is, I think, very much an open question.' On Friday, the Supreme Court blocked President Donald Trump from moving forward with deporting a group of immigrants in northern Texas under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act – a win for Venezuelans who feared they were going to be removed under the wartime authority. The administration invoked the powers earlier this year to speed deportations of alleged gang members and has cited national security concerns. Asked about the justification for using those legal authorities to deport people, Vance conceded that 'we don't have 5 million uniform combatants.' But he pointed to thousands of migrants who he said, without evidence, 'intentionally came to the United States to cause violence' to argue that courts need to be deferential to the president on what he called a 'public safety' issue. 'I think that the courts need to be somewhat deferential. In fact, I think the design is that they should be extremely deferential to these questions of political judgment made by the people's elected president of United States,' Vance said. 'People under appreciate the level of public safety stress that we're under when the president talks about how bad crime is.' When asked how he would define success on immigration after Trump's term, Vance also pointed to the courts. 'Success, to me, is not so much a number, though, obviously I'd love to see the gross majority of the illegal immigrants who came in under Biden deported,' Vance said. 'Success, to me, is that we have established a set of rules and principles that the courts are comfortable with and that we have the infrastructure to do that, allows us to deport large numbers of illegal aliens when large numbers of illegal aliens come into the country.' Vance acknowledged he's sometimes had to reconcile his faith with the administration's policy decisions while going on to defend its actions on immigration. 'I understand your point and making these judgments, if you take the teachings of our faith seriously, they are hard. I'm not going to pretend that I haven't struggled with some of this, that I haven't thought about whether, you know, we're doing the precisely right thing,' Vance told Douthat. 'The concern that you raise is fair, there has to be some way in which you're asking yourself as you go about enforcing the law – even, to your point, against a very dangerous people – that you're enforcing the law consistent with, you know, the Catholic Church's moral dictates and so forth.' Douthat interjected, 'And American law and basic principles.' 'Most importantly, American law,' Vance said. Asked about his disagreements on immigration with Popes Francis and Leo, Vance – who said he was wearing a tie Francis gifted him before his death – said that you have to 'hold two ideas in your head at the same time' about enforcing border laws and respecting the dignity of migrants. 'I'm not saying I'm always perfect at it. But I at least try to think about, okay, there are obligations that we have to people who, in some ways, are fleeing violence or at least fleeing poverty. I also have a very sacred obligation, I think, to enforce the laws and to promote the common good of my own country, defined as the people with the legal right to be here,' Vance said. 'I really do think that social solidarity is destroyed when you have too much migration too quickly,' he added. 'And so that's not because I hate the migrants, or I'm motivated by grievance. That's because I'm trying to preserve something in my own country where we are a unified nation.'
