ICE arrests nearly 200 Tren de Aragua members, prepares deportation flights to Venezuela
WASHINGTON (TNND) — Immigrations and Customs Enforcement officials have apprehended nearly 200 members of the transnational criminal gang Tren de Aragua, according to a Wednesday statement from The White House shared with The National News Desk.
From January 21 to February 3, ICE arrested 194 members of the gang who were in the country illegally. The arrests begin to fulfill Trump’s campaign promise to Americans that his administration will root out dangerous illegal migrants living in the country.
“President Donald Trump told the American people he’d arrest and deport members of the brutal Tren de Aragua gang, and he’s doing just that,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a statement. “Illegal immigrant criminal gangs like Tren de Aragua will no longer be able to terrorize American communities under President Trump’s leadership.”
Each of the gang members will be deported to Venezuela, Leavitt added. The country has already agreed to accept repatriation flights from the United States.
The gang members are among the more than 7,000 criminal aliens ICE has apprehended since President Donald Trump took office. The agency has conducted raids in several major sanctuary cities.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem last week announced the U.S. will utilize the military prison Guantanamo Bay to house deported migrants. Trump suggested as many as 30,000 criminal migrants may be sent there due to a lack of confidence in other countries’ ability to detain these individuals.
“Some of them are so bad we don't even trust the countries to hold them, because we don't want them coming back, so we're gonna send them out to Guantanamo,” Trump said. “This will double our capacity immediately, right? And tough. That's a tough, that's a tough place to get out of.”
Others, however, expressed concerns over these plans given the history of illegal torture at the facility.
“Guantanamo really should be known as the dumping ground for American executive action, where they really do want to circumvent -- and sometimes smash and shred -- the United States constitution," Vince Warren, executive director of the Center for Constitutional Rights, said Thursday.
"Because there’s a military base, there’s not as much scrutiny," he added. "There's no transparency. There’s no information about what happens there."
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