US President Donald Trump deported around 300 alleged members of Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, to the Terrorism Confinement Center in El Salvador on Sunday, despite a court order forbidding the administration from doing so.
According to the Associated Press, the Trump administration has agreed to pay $6 million to El Salvador to keep these alleged gang members in prison for one year.
A US federal judge ruled against the Trump administration’s deportation of hundreds of suspected illegal immigrants under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act, which permits the government to take action against foreign nationals from enemy countries during times of war.
The order did not have an immediate effect because the judge’s verbal instruction to stop the deportation was not included in the written order. Mr Trump also accused Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro of secretly supporting the criminal gang and using it to attack the US. Shortly after taking office in January, Mr Trump officially labelled Tren de Aragua a terrorist organisation.
What is Tren de Aragua?
Tren de Aragua is a criminal gang founded in the early 2000s in Aragua, Venezuela. It started in Tocoron prison where the gang created a luxurious criminal empire with swimming pools, casinos, gyms, sports fields, restaurants, bars and even a zoo. These prisons functioned as mini-cities where the government had little to no control.
The gang became a powerful international crime group under Hector Guerrero Flores and is wanted by the US. He escaped prison in 2012 by bribing a guard but was caught again in 2013 and then turned the prison into a luxury resort for gang members. He expanded the gang by using Caribbean coastal areas to transport drugs and controlling illegal migration routes between Venezuela and Colombia.
Tren de Aragua engages in a variety of criminal activities such as arms trafficking, sex trafficking, human smuggling, drug trafficking, and violent crimes. It operated in multiple countries including Colombia, Brazil, Peru, Ecuador, Bolivia, Panama, Costa Rica, Chile, Mexico, Trinidad and Tobago, and the US.
The gang leaders control operations inside and outside the prison and protect its members by bribing police, politicians and prison guards. They smuggle and sell cocaine, marijuana, and drugs across Latin America. The group also controls illegal migration routes and forces migrants into crime.
The gang takes advantage of Venezuela’s economic and political crisis, which has forced millions of people to leave the country. Since many migrants look for money, food, and shelter, the gang recruits them into criminal activities. This makes them spread through refugee camps and border towns.
According to reports, 600 Venezuelan migrants in the US have links with Tren de Aragua.
As of 2023, 7.7 lakh Venezuelans were living in the US, making up about 2 per cent of all immigrants in the country. Many of them had been given protected status by the US government due to the socio-political situation in their home country.