Ted Hessen
Appearances
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
Tren de Aragua is a Venezuelan gang, a prison gang, and the name translates to train from Aragua, which is a state in Venezuela. And within Venezuela and within the region, they have a reputation, a notorious reputation for extortion and kidnappings and even contract killings. We've seen them increasingly talked about in the U.S., particularly in the political context.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
What we saw under former President Joe Biden was an increase in immigration generally and illegal immigration at the U.S.-Mexico border. and also hundreds of thousands of Venezuelans who entered both by crossing the border illegally and through legal entry programs that Biden himself had launched.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
And then during the election, we noticed that as President Trump made illegal immigration a major theme and even legal immigration a major theme of his reelection campaign, he was focusing also on the Venezuelans who had come into the country and particularly portraying many of them as immigrants affiliated with this gang, Tren de Aragua, or with gangs in general or criminality.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
Now, that said, even though this gang does have a fearsome reputation within Venezuela and within the region, there are not yet signs that they're operational on a large scale in the U.S. There have been individual cases of alleged members of the gang arrested and charged with crimes, including very serious crimes.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
But that said, it's just not clear that they're operational here in the way that they might be in another country.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
So the Alien Enemies Act is an obscure, rarely used wartime statute that dates back to 1798. And it's really just been used three times in U.S. history and always in times of war. It's best known or most notoriously known for its use in World War II to justify internment camps for Japanese Americans, Italian Americans, and German Americans.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
The Trump administration has been building the case that this law could be used against a quote-unquote invasion at the U.S.-Mexico border. And in a proclamation that he issued on Saturday, President Trump said that
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
The Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, which he said was present in the U.S., was part of this invasion and essentially was conducting what he was calling irregular warfare in the U.S., enough to justify invoking this wartime statute.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
Now, part of the reason that he would like to do this is that when you have the statute in effect, you can bypass due process in these cases. So they wouldn't have to go through immigration courts. They may have a pending asylum claim. They may have even a legal status in the U.S.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
President Trump's proclamation exempted citizens and green card holders, but it could be applied to other Venezuelans in the U.S. ages 14 and up, so actually children as well.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
The Trump administration has said that these are alleged members of the gang. We still have few details about them. In a court filing that came out this week, an official with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, ICE, said that many of the people who were deported actually had no criminal records in the U.S.,
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
Some of them had been either charged or convicted of crimes, including some serious ones, but many of them had not. That said, he said that some of them had criminal convictions in other countries, including Venezuela, and still could potentially pose a threat because of the lack of information about them. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has said something similar.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
But in the same breath, Secretary of State Rubio also said that if it turns out some of them are not gang members, well, El Salvador, where they've been sent to, can just deport them back to Venezuela.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
Since President Trump implemented this policy on Saturday, there has been a legal battle going on led by the American Civil Liberties Union. And they actually sued preemptively before the policy was public to prevent the use of this act against five Venezuelan clients they had in the U.S.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
In that case, a federal judge in Washington, D.C., his name's James Boasberg, he issued a temporary restraining order for 14 days that essentially said the Trump administration needs to put this policy on hold. There are serious questions being raised here as to whether it could cause irreparable harm, which is the standard for that, and that they should stop.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
And what we learned after the fact is that two flights, at least two flights, were in the air leaving the U.S. and bound for eventually for El Salvador. In his order, Judge Boasberg had said that even if there are planes in the air, you need to stop the planes and turn them around and bring the people back.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
And it's kind of kicked off a legal battle, first of all, about the policy, and then secondarily about whether the Trump administration was honoring the spirit of his restraining order and whether they followed it. These planes continued on to their destination, which was El Salvador. And after the fact, the Trump administration has made the argument that They had already left the continental US.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
They were no longer in US airspace. And that fundamentally, by the time he issued this order, the people had been removed or deported from the US. So it no longer applied to them. And all this is still playing out in court. So we don't necessarily know where the judge will land on it or what the final result will be.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
That's completely unclear to me at the moment. Bukele has said that they'll be held there for a one-year period that could be renewed. It's not clear that they're facing any charges in El Salvador. It's not clear that they're facing any charges in the U.S. or other countries either, or that they even have criminal convictions. So they are... really in a legal black hole at the moment.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
At this moment, we don't know what sort of access they're going to be getting to attorneys or what might ultimately happen with them. What we have seen in the Trump administration is a kind of similar effort to send Venezuelan migrants and people from other countries as well to the U.S. naval base in Guantanamo Bay, another place that's known as a legal black hole for long-term detention.
Today, Explained
The autocrat's prison
And in those cases, the people who were there were not ultimately held for long periods. In the case of the Venezuelans, they were able to be removed back to Venezuela. So there is a question, is this a way to pressure the Venezuelan government of President Nicolas Maduro there? to agree to accept these deportees and maybe just open the door generally to accepting more deportees.