Trump Expected To Invoke Wartime Powers To Deport Illegal Tren de Aragua Members
President Donald Trump is expected to invoke wartime powers as early as Friday to expedite the deportation of criminal illegal aliens believed to be connected to the Venezuelan prison gang Tren de Aragua.
Trump is expected to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to authorize the rapid removal of Tren de Aragua members from the country, with many expected to be sent to the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base.
The law allows the president to arrest, detain, and deport non-citizens aged 14-years-old or older who come from nations that are mounting an “invasion or predatory incursion” into the United States. Tren de Aragua was one of the entities that the Trump administration designated as a foreign terror organization on the president’s first day in office.
“TdA is a transnational organization that originated in Venezuela with cells in Colombia, Peru, and Chile, with further reports of sporadic presence in Ecuador, Bolivia, and Brazil,” the Trump State Department said of Tren de Aragua “This brutal criminal group has conducted kidnappings, extorted businesses, bribed public officials, authorized its members to attack and kill U.S. law enforcement, and assassinated a Venezuelan opposition figure.”
The gang became infamous after members of the criminal organization took control over apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado.
Illegal aliens subject to the 227-year-old act would not be allowed to access an asylum interview or a court hearing and would be processed under wartime authority rather than under conventional immigration law.
Trump previously stated that he would invoke the act in his inaugural address. “By invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, I will direct our government to use the full and immense power of federal and state law enforcement to eliminate the presence of all foreign gangs and criminal networks bringing devastating crime to U.S. soil, including our cities and inner cities.”
The Department of Defense has worked to prepare the Guantanamo Bay Naval Base to hold up to 30,000 illegal alien detainees, with administration officials saying that it will be used to house the worst illegal alien criminals.
