FBI says Venezuelan government using TdA members as proxies

Over the last few weeks, the Trump administration has been trying to use the Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to deport criminal gang members who are illegal immigrants.

This effort has been challenged because the AEA is a wartime piece of legislation, and we are clearly not at war, but the FBI just announced something that could give a bit of a twist to this narrative.

Terrorism Charges

Tren de Aragua (TdA) is one of the most notorious and lethal gangs in the world, which was recently designated as a terrorist organization by the Trump administration.

This was all part of the plan to allow Trump to use the AEA to deport TdA gang members.

This week, that plan is getting backed by an indictment of a high-ranking TdA gang member (allegedly) on terrorism charges.

In announcing the indictment, Attorney General Pam Bondi stated, “TdA is not a street gang — it is a highly structured terrorist organization that put down roots in our country during the prior administration.”

New Charges Filed

While that story was breaking, another story broke regarding charges being filed after a Fox News story about an early release for an illegal immigrant from prison.

In the spring of 2022, Oscar Eduardo Ortega-Anguiano was convicted on two counts of gross vehicular manslaughter while intoxicated, receiving a sentence of 10 years. Fox News, however, reported that he was about to be let out after only serving 3.5 years of his sentence.

Bill Essayli, United States Attorney for the Central District of California, then announced, "My office has filed a felony immigration charge against this defendant. He faces up to 20 years in federal prison if convicted for 8 USC 1326.

“If the State of California will not seek the full measure of justice against this individual, the [DOJ] will.”

Kash Patel Shocker

The final piece to this puzzle is an announcement by the FBI that directly ties the Venezuelan government to TdA, alleging that the government is using the gang as a proxy to undermine safety in this country.

The official stated, "Nicholas Maduro is a Marxist dictator who hijacked a once-prosperous Venezuela and brought in nothing but total economic collapse and gang takeover. He crumbled Caracas, now overrun with drugs and violence, and wants to do the same across the United States by sending his most violent and dangerous criminals into our communities.

"The Trump administration will continue to use every authority in our power to make sure these TdA terrorists, who are some of the worst in the world, are kept out of our country. The American people voted overwhelmingly to make America safe again, and that is exactly what we will do."

The key to Trump being able to use AEA to deport these gang members would be to affiliate it with an adversary who was sending them here with nefarious intent. It may not be an armed invasion, as I believe the spirit of that law reads, but if they can show that TdA is a terrorist organization with the backing of a foreign government, the odds of Trump being able to use that legislation to deport these gang members go up rather significantly.