Peloni: In every war, the liberties of democratic nations are necessarily restrained. Men are asked to commit as routine such acts which would otherwise be seen to be formidable crimes as they do so in defense and preservation of the nation and its heritage and institutions. The recent onslaught on America’s borders represents an assault upon the American people, the likes of which they have never faced before, not in the scope of villains and enemies which have invaded the localities of the American homeland, nor in the numbers which have been motivated by the Left and their foreign allies to overrun and swamp the American people. This is the context under which Trump has applied the use of this strategy, and it indicates both the degree to which such a measure as the Aliens Sedition Act has become necessary, as well as the determination by which Trump intends to succeed while facing this challenge.
President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) on Saturday, making gang members liable to immediate arrest and removal as “Alien Enemies” of the U.S.
“[A]ll Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of TdA, are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies,” Trump proclaimed, citing the authority of the U.S. Constitution and laws “including the Alien Enemies Act.”
Alien Enemies would be “subject to immediate apprehension, detention, and removal, and further that they shall not be permitted residence in the United States,” according to the proclamation.
Trump in the proclamation added that TdA members were at war with the U.S. “directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela” and were a threat to the peace and safety of the U.S. The proclamation followed a Jan. 20, 2025 executive order classifying TdA and other transnational cartels as foreign terrorist organizations.
Venezuela had become “a hybrid criminal state” as the TdA and other transnational gangs gained increasing control over the country while also “flood[ing]” the U.S. with drugs and illegal migrants, according to Trump’s proclamation.
Trump also accused Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro and former Venezuelan Vice President Tareck El Aissami of sponsoring and aiding criminal gangs, including TdA.
“TdA grew significantly while Tareck El Aissami served as governor of Aragua between 2012 and 2017,” the proclamation states.
El Aissami is a fugitive of the U.S., having been declared “wanted” by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs over international drug trafficking charges.
Along with several other Venezuelan officials, Maduro, who — according to Trump, “claims to act as Venezuela’s President” — was charged in 2020 with running a “narco-terrorism partnership” with Colombian rebels to weaponize cocaine against the U.S. populace.
Maduro is also wanted for drug trafficking charges. “The United States has not recognized Maduro as the President of Venezuela since 2019,” the U.S. Department of State noted.
The Alien Enemies Act is one of four laws passed in 1798 as the U.S. neared a war with France to raise residency requirements, authorize punitive presidential actions against aliens in wartime and limit speech critical of the U.S. government, according to the U.S. National Archives.
TdA and other Venezuelan gangs have been linked to several migrant crimes across the U.S., ranging from various shooting incidents and robberies to sex trafficking, home invasion and murder.
Diego Ibarra, the brother of the illegal Venezuelan immigrant Jose Ibarra who was convicted for the murder of American student Laken Riley, was allegedly linked to TdA.
A few hours after Trump’s proclamation, James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the District Court for the U.S. District of Columbia, issued a temporary restraining order blocking the president, CBS News reported.
Boasberg’s order initially was to prevent for 14 days the deportation of five Venezuelan men in immigration custody after the men filed a federal civil lawsuit through attorneys with the American Civil Liberties Union and Democracy Forward, according to the outlet.
The civil lawsuit reportedly argued the Alien Enemies Act was “a wartime measure that has been used only three times in our Nation’s history: the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.”
Trump’s proclamation, the lawsuit further argued, “also contorts the plain language of the [Act]: arrivals of noncitizens from Venezuela are deemed an ‘invasion’ or ‘predatory incursion’ by a ‘foreign nation or government,’ where Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang, is deemed to be sufficiently akin to a foreign nation or government.”
The U.S. Department of Justice shortly thereafter appealed Boasberg’s decision, reportedly arguing the D.C. court has no jurisdiction over the case because the men are held in Texas and New York — not Washington — and that the invocation of the Act was “speculation.”
Boasberg later expanded his order to cover “all noncitizens in U.S. custody” who could be affected by Trump’s invocation of the Act and seemed to signal that migrants subject to his order who were already on deportation flights mid-air should be flown back to the U.S., according to CBS News.
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