What is Tren de Aragua?

The Trump administration flew hundreds of immigrants to El Salvador over the weekend despite a judge’s order temporarily barring them from being deported under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, the wartime declaration that President Donald Trump invoked.

According to The Associated Press, the flights were already in the air when the judge made the ruling Saturday. The judge verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not. 

Trump invoked the act on Saturday to target members of the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua gang for mass deportations. He repeatedly hinted during his campaign that he would declare extraordinary powers to confront illegal immigration and laid additional groundwork in a slew of executive orders on Jan. 20.

What is Tren de Aragua?

The backstory:

 Tren de Aragua, known as TdA, originated in an infamously lawless prison in the central state of Aragua and accompanied an exodus of millions of Venezuelans, the overwhelming majority of whom were seeking better living conditions after their nation’s economy came undone last decade. 

Tren de Aragua is Spanish for "the train of Aragua." The group may have gotten its name from a union of railroad workers, NPR reported.

By 2017, Tren de Aragua began to be known as a "megabanda," a category the local press in Venezuela use to refer to large organized criminal groups.

Tren de Aragua’s growth surged as a result of mass incarceration policies that began under Venezuela’s former President Hugo Chávez and expanded under current President Nicolás Maduro. 

The men began to organize into prison gangs with clear hierarchies. They accumulated vast profits by charging prisoners fees for food, use of space and protection from inmate violence. They also opened and ran businesses, including a club, inside Tocorón prison.

RELATED: Hundreds of Venezuelans deported by Trump administration despite judge's order

Members of different gangs in and outside the prison also began to communicate and share information about criminal activities such as kidnapping and extortion. This strengthened social networks and expanded their illegal enterprises.

Tren de Aragua eventually took control of Tocorón prison as the government became unable to manage daily life inside its walls. It had become one of the largest and best organized gangs in Venezuela.

Trump seized on the gang during his campaign to paint misleading pictures of communities that he contended were "taken over" by what were actually a handful of lawbreakers.

Where is Tren de Aragua now?

Dig deeper:

Several countries have reported arrests of members of Tren de Aragua. While the group has certainly expanded operations into Latin American countries, research shows common criminals have posed as Tren de Aragua members in both Colombia and Chile.

In the U.S, Tren de Aragua has infiltrated communities in states such as Colorado and Texas, while MS-13 is a Los Angeles-founded gang with ties to El Salvador that has deep roots in California and other states such as Maryland, according to FOX News. The State Department designated both gangs as foreign terrorist organizations last month.

According to NPR, Tren de Aragua is suspected in the shooting of two New York Police officers and the killing of a former Venezuelan police officer in Florida. They said gang members have been arrested in Pennsylvania, Florida, New York, Texas and California.

Judge blocks Alien Enemies Act deportations, but it was ‘too late’

What we know:

The Alien Enemies Act allows the president to detain, relocate or deport non-citizens from a country that is considered an enemy of the United States during wartime.

Congress passed the Alien Enemies Act as part of the four Alien and Sedition Acts of 1798 when the U.S. was about to go to war with France.

U.S. District Judge James E. Boasberg issued an order Saturday temporarily blocking the deportations, but lawyers told him there were already two planes with immigrants in the air — one headed for El Salvador, the other for Honduras. Boasberg verbally ordered the planes be turned around, but they apparently were not, and he did not include the directive in his written order.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt, in a statement Sunday, responded to speculation about whether the administration was flouting court orders: "The administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order. The order, which had no lawful basis, was issued after terrorist TdA aliens had already been removed from U.S. territory."

Immigration lawyers said that, late Friday, they noticed Venezuelans who otherwise couldn't be deported under immigration law being moved to Texas for deportation flights. They began to file lawsuits to halt the transfers.

What we don't know:

It’s unclear exactly how many migrants were deported despite the judge’s order. The Trump administration has not identified the migrants deported, provided any evidence they are in fact members of Tren de Aragua or that they committed any crimes in the U.S.

What they're saying:

"Oopsie…Too late," Salvadoran President Nayib Bukele, a Trump ally who agreed to house about 300 migrants for a year at a cost of $6 million in his country’s prisons, wrote on the social media site X above an article about Boasberg’s ruling. That post was recirculated by White House communications director Steven Cheung.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who negotiated an earlier deal with Bukele to house migrants, posted on the site: "We sent over 250 alien enemy members of Tren de Aragua which El Salvador has agreed to hold in their very good jails at a fair price that will also save our taxpayer dollars."

Trump said the U.S. was being invaded by Tren de Aragua  – and the sweeping wartime law would give the president broader leeway to deport what he says is a hostile force acting at the behest of Venezuela’s government.

"I find and declare that TdA is perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion or predatory incursion against the territory of the United States," Trump wrote in the declaration. "TdA is undertaking hostile actions and conducting irregular warfare against the territory of the United States both directly and at the direction, clandestine or otherwise, of the Maduro regime in Venezuela."

The other side:

Venezuela’s government in a statement Sunday rejected the use of Trump’s declaration of the law, characterizing it as evocative of "the darkest episodes in human history, from slavery to the horror of the Nazi concentration camps."

Crime and Public SafetyDonald J. TrumpU.S.PoliticsImmigration