The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says Venezuelan government officials may be using Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang members, according to a Fox News report.
A “senior” Trump administration official shared with Fox News, “unclassified portions” of an FBI assessment, which found that officials within Venezuelan Dictator Nicolas Maduro’s regime, were using TdA gang members “as proxies for the Maduro regime in an effort to destabilize” countries such as the U.S., Chile, Ecuador, Peru, and Colombia, according to the outlet:
Fox News Digital has learned that the FBI assesses that some Venezuelan government officials are likely using Tren de Aragua members as proxies for the Maduro regime in an effort to destabilize Chile, Ecuador, Peru, Colombia and the United States. The official said the FBI assesses that this demonstrates Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro’s willingness to violate the territorial sovereignty of Venezuela’s neighbors to advance his regime’s policies.
FBI officials have reportedly assessed that within “six to 18 months,” Venezuelan government officials will try to “leverage” TdA gang members in the U.S. to act as “proxy actors to threaten, abduct and kill members of the Venezuelan diaspora” who have been “vocal critics of Maduro,” according to the outlet.
The report comes as President Donald Trump and his administration have faced legal challenges from several judges in response to the deportations of Venezuelan migrants who are suspected of being TdA members under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act.
Federal judges in states such as Colorado and New York “questioned the legality of the administration’s use of wartime measures to speed deportations of” suspected TdA gang members, according to the Wall Street Journal.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein stated during a “hearing in New York,” that the Trump administration has “gotta tell a person what he’s done,” while U.S. District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney in Colorado “all but said Trump’s invocation of wartime authority for the gang deportations was unlawful,” according to the outlet:
In one of those cases, U.S. District Judge Charlotte N. Sweeney in Colorado expressed serious doubt Tuesday about the government’s claims that current events constitute “irregular warfare” in which gang members are immigrating to the U.S. to commit murders, kidnappings, drug trafficking and other offenses.
Sweeney all but said Trump’s invocation of wartime authority for the gang deportations was unlawful. To use the Alien Enemies Act, Trump would have to establish the U.S. is in a state of war, the judge said.
Breitbart News’s Christian K. Caruzo reported in March that Maduro stated his regime would “not rest” until it had rescued Venezuelan migrants who were deported from the U.S. and “sent to jail in El Salvador.”
“We will not rest until the Venezuelans who have been kidnapped and sent to jail in El Salvador, violated and subjected without due process or the right to defense, return to their homeland,” Maduro said.
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act in March, as part of an effort to speed up the removal of Venezuelan migrants who are suspected and accused of being TdA gang members.
In a 5-4 decision, the Supreme Court previously lifted a block from U.S. District Judge James Boasberg that prevented the Trump administration from deporting illegal migrants suspected of being TdA gang members.
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