Tren de Aragua, commonly known as the TDA, is a Venezuelan gang targeted by President Trump in a recent massive deportation.
On Saturday, Trump invoked the alien enemy law of 1798. It was the first time since World War II. This will allow the president to have the drastic power to deport people, and to target TDA members in particular.
What is TDA?
The gang was born in a Venezuelan prison in 2014. This group may have acquired its name from a coalition of railway workers; NPR reported.
The gang ruled the prisons and ruled the crimes of the country from behind the bar. As Venezuela's economic outlook declined, gangs spread internationally by finding new members among Venezuelans due to the economic crisis, outlets reported.
The Venezuelan government claims it has eliminated the organization, but several countries have reported arrests of members.
In the US, the group is part of the robbery and is suspected of the deaths and shooting of several people in the deaths of a New York State police officer and a former Venezuelan police officer in Florida, NPR reported.
Trump and TDA
During last year's campaign, Trump highlighted conspiracy theories about the immigrant community.
It follows news that a TDA gang in Aurora, Colorado has overtaken an apartment. Trump visited the city after sharing the video online and then showed a group of armed men in their apartment just before someone was shot dead.
Trump used the incident as fuel for his immigration plans and as an argument that helped American groups get used to it
The Biden administration saw the TDA as a multinational criminal organization last year, with dozens of arrests being made between the group in January as part of Trump's first immigration action.
In his declaration of enacting the conduct of alien enemies over the weekend, Trump said that all Venezuelan citizens who are over 14 are responsible for being arrested for “not actually naturalized or legal permanent” as “restricted, protected and removed as alien enemies.”
Legal impact
Trump's declaration comes hours after the administration temporarily blocked the removal of five Venezuelans they said were linked to the TDA.
Later, shortly after Trump's announcement, including wartime law, federal judges expanded the ruling, preventing the removal of all individuals deemed eligible for removal under a 14-day Trump order.
The order from US District Judge James Boasberg came as a result of a lawsuit filed by the Democratic Forward and the American Civil Liberties Union.
“A plane that includes these people who take off or are in the air will need to be returned to the US,” Boasberg said.
A day later, Secretary of State Marco Rubio announced that hundreds of TDA members had been deported under the law, violating the orders of federal judges.
Rubio negotiated an agreement with El Salvador President Naive Bukere, who agreed to incarcerate the gang in the exchange of prisoners.
The Trump administration granted a court flight to be filed Sunday in court, but argued that the plane had already left our jurisdiction by the time Boasberg issued his order.
