“Tren de Aragua is operating under the direction of the Maduro regime.”

Multiple public remarks justifying invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798

Trump's own intelligence community says this is false. A declassified April 7, 2025 memo from the National Intelligence Council concluded that the Maduro regime "probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States." The memo, released May 5, 2025 under a Freedom of Information Act request, found that Venezuelan security forces actually treat Tren de Aragua as a security threat, arresting and even killing its members in armed confrontations since at least 2016. The assessment was not unanimous: FBI analysts assessed that "some Venezuelan government officials facilitate TDA members' migration from Venezuela to the United States and use members as proxies." This claim was the legal foundation for Trump's March 15, 2025 invocation of the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport Venezuelans without hearings. Separately, Trump appointee U.S. District Judge Fernando Rodriguez Jr. ruled on May 1, 2025 that "the President's invocation of the AEA through the Proclamation exceeds the scope of the statute." "While Venezuela's permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States." — National Intelligence Council memo, April 7, 2025 (declassified May 5, 2025)