The U.S. military transferred a group of 17 alleged members of Tren de Aragua to El Salvador from Guantanamo Bay on Sunday night, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said.
Rubio said in a statement posted on X that the alleged gang members included murderers and rapists.
“In order to keep the American people safe, @POTUS designated the Tren de Aragua and MS-13 as Foreign Terrorist Organizations,” Rubio said. “These criminals will no longer terrorize our communities and citizens.”
Those transferred to El Salvador included Keivis Jesus Arrecheder Vasquez, a Venezuelan national and an alleged leader of Tren de Aragua, senior White House officials told Fox News. He has two criminal charges pending related to the intent to sell drugs.
The officials said six other alleged Tren de Aragua members were also transferred. All the individuals transferred were either citizens of Venezuela or El Salvador. Some have criminal charges pending, while most have been convicted.
These removals were done via Title 8, not the Alien Enemies Act, and all the individuals had deportation orders or final orders of removal, according to the senior White House officials, meaning the Trump administration did not violate a federal judge’s order halting the deportations.
U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg extended a restraining order on Friday against the use of the Alien Enemies Act, a 1798 wartime immigration law, by the Trump administration to deport violent gang members with alleged ties to gangs.
Continue reading
Discussion about this post