The U.S. State Division declared on Feb. 20, 2025, that the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, in addition to some Mexican drug cartels, at the moment are thought of overseas terrorist organizations.
Is the brand new label warranted?
Tren de Aragua is on the middle of a controversial immigration case that the Supreme Court docket goes to contemplate.
The Trump administration is utilizing the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to justify deporting greater than 100 of the 238 Venezuelan and Salvadoran male immigrants it despatched to a jail in El Salvador on March 15. The administration says that these immigrants are members of gangs akin to Tren de Aragua and are overseas enemies, to allow them to be despatched away with simply an order from the White Home.
The administration makes use of a guidelines of things, together with bodily markers like tattoos, to find out these people’ affiliation with Tren de Aragua. Though in actuality, the Tren de Aragua gang members don’t use any particular tattoos.
Relations and attorneys representing a few of the Venezuelan immigrants say that they aren’t truly related to the gang, and that a few of them have been residing within the U.S. legally.
I’m an skilled on immigration, and I believe it is very important perceive why classifying Tren de Aragua as a overseas terrorist group has sparked debate amongst observers.
One necessary cause is that Tren de Aragua is primarily a profit-driven group, not an ideological one – inserting the group extra firmly within the transnational organized crime class relatively than a political terrorist group.
Venezuelan immigrants deported from the U.S. arrived in El Salvador in March 2025.
El Salvador Press Presidency Workplace/Anadolu by way of Getty Pictures
Understanding Tren de Aragua
Tren de Aragua originated as a small jail gang within the early 2000s inside Tocorón jail in Venezuela’s state of Aragua, positioned close to the nation’s capital, Caracas.
Over the previous 25 years, Tren de Aragua has expanded quickly throughout South and Central America, and advanced right into a transnational legal group below the management of Hector Guerrero Flores. Also called Niño Guerrero, Flores is a 41-year-old Venezuelan who first served time in Tocorón jail in 2010 for killing a police officer earlier than he escaped for the primary time in 2012. His present location will not be recognized.
Flores is needed by the U.S. and Colombia for numerous crimes associated to increasing the group’s legal community all through South and Central America.
At present, an estimated 5,000 individuals are affiliated with Tren de Aragua, which is principally centered on human trafficking and different crimes focusing on migrants. The gang has additionally been linked to different legal organizations in Latin America and is concerned with extortion, kidnapping, cash laundering and drug smuggling. The variety of energetic members in the US is within the low lots of, and clearly the nice majority of Venezuelans right here will not be members.
Homeland Safety Secretary Kristi Noem arrives on the presidential palace in San Salvador, El Salvador, to debate the deportation of Venezuelan immigrants to the nation on March 26, 2025.
Alex Brandon-Pool/Getty Pictures
Totally different finish objectives
Tren de Aragua has expanded partially due to its capability to take advantage of weak governance throughout the state of Aragua, and finally throughout Venezuela, which faces political instability and a weak economic system. An enlargement past Venezuela has allowed the gang to attach with different transnational legal networks.
Most accepted definitions of terrorism say it’s a form of violence, often used towards civilians, motivated by political and ideological beliefs and objectives. Tren de Aragua doesn’t match that definition. It doesn’t have a political ideology and due to this fact will not be an precise terrorist group.
The U.S. authorities considers a overseas terrorist group a overseas group that engages in terrorist exercise, or plans to take action, in a method that threatens the safety of U.S. nationals or the nation extra broadly.
Tren de Aragua is among the many eight teams that the State Division first labeled as overseas terrorist organizations within the first few months of 2025 after Donald Trump’s inauguration. The opposite new teams placed on the checklist primarily embody Latin American drug trafficking organizations, just like the Mexican Sinaloa cartel.
Whereas transnational legal organizations and overseas terrorist organizations each interact in violence and illicit actions, their finish objectives are completely different.
International terrorist organizations akin to al-Qaida and the Islamic State group search political, non secular or ideological change – or all three – as they attempt to use violence to reshape the political panorama of their areas.
Terrorist teams and transnational legal organizations will not be the identical
Tren de Aragua, in addition to different transnational legal teams like MS-13 – which originated in Los Angeles however now operates all through the Americas – and the Sinaloa cartel, perform unlawful, violent actions throughout borders with a purpose to earn a living.
These teams shouldn’t have political or ideological motives past creating circumstances to maximise their very own income. They don’t intention to take political energy within the U.S. or elsewhere, or attempt to remake society in their very own picture. That’s past their purview and capabilities.
Correctly distinguishing between terrorist organizations and transnational legal organizations is essential for devising efficient insurance policies and responses to their violence. Mislabeling these teams can result in inappropriate responses akin to placing apart civil liberties, due course of and human rights.
Incorrectly classifying Tren de Aragua and different legal teams as terrorist organizations might shift U.S. overseas coverage and assets towards counterterrorism efforts and away from lowering the facility and violence exercised by organized crime and drug cartels in lots of elements of Latin America.
Nevertheless, the best way wherein many Venezuelans and different immigrants have been deported from the nation over the previous few months with out passing by means of immigration court docket appears to point that the primary rationale for the discuss alien enemies and these terrorist designations is to help within the purpose of mass deportations, relatively than to struggle home or worldwide terrorism.
If the U.S. actually needs to curb undocumented immigration and cut back drug and human trafficking, then I imagine that it ought to be certain that its classification of those organizations is correct and aligned with its precise goals.
Melissa Vasquez, a graduate scholar at American College finding out worldwide affairs and the Northern Triangle in Central America, contributed to this piece.
