Tren de Aragua

Tren de Aragua (Spanish pronunciation: [tɾen de aˈɾaɣwa]; English: Aragua Train) is a transnational organized crime syndicate from Venezuela. Tren de Aragua is led by Héctor Rusthenford Guerrero Flores, alias "Niño Guerrero"; he was incarcerated in Tocorón prison (also known as Aragua Penitentiary Center), which functioned at the time as the organization's de facto headquarters. The gang expanded throughout Latin America and the United States during the Venezuelan refugee crisis. Combating the gang has become a priority for many nations where Tren de Aragua operates. Though Tocorón prison was taken over by Venezuelan security forces in 2023, the leadership escaped.

On 20 January 2025, US president Donald Trump signed an executive order initiating the process of designating various drug cartels and transnational gangs, including Tren de Aragua, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations. The designation took effect on 20 February 2025. In March 2025, the Trump administration ordered the deportation of alleged Tren de Aragua members, citing the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The order was temporarily halted pending further legal challenges. Experts have disputed the designation as a terrorist organization, describing it as motivated by money and not political ideology.

In the United States, President Trump has referenced Tren de Aragua in discussions of immigration policy, comparing it to organizations such as Al-Qaeda, citing its reported presence when invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, a wartime law historically applied in contexts of armed conflict. This legislation affected deportation procedures for Venezuelan nationals, with the administration arguing they posed a terrorist threat. U.S. intelligence reports have indicated that the group operates independently of Venezuelan state control and lacks a coordinated structure within the country. Some analysts have compared current patterns to the 1980 Mariel boatlift, when the Cuban regime allowed mass departure of citizens, including a significant number of common prisoners and others deemed undesirable. Reports indicate criminal elements have migrated among those fleeing the ongoing humanitarian crisis, with some joining networks like Tren de Aragua in other countries. The 2023 raid on the Tocorón Penitentiary Center, considered the group's headquarters, occurred following reports of crimes committed by the faction in neighboring nations.

Members of Tren de Aragua are primarily Venezuelans. The evidence gathered in the context of the migratory measures implemented by the Trump administration is based on a form designed to determine the alleged membership in the organization known as the Tren de Aragua. The document submitted as evidence establishes that the individual questioned must be Venezuelan, be 14 years of age or older, and not possess U.S. citizenship or residency, and based on these requirements a table is used which contains 20 criteria distributed in six subgroups (Judicial Sentences and Official Documents, Self-admission, Criminal Conduct and Information, Documents and Communications, Symbolism, and Association), in which between two and ten points are assigned according to the fulfillment of each condition, with the accumulation of eight points implying designation as a member of the Tren de Aragua.

Among the criteria, the assignment of 10 points is notable in cases of conviction for violations of U.S. law related to activities connected with the organization or for the explicit admission of membership, while other criteria assign 4 or 3 points depending on the existence of information from U.S. intelligence sources or foreign partners, testimonies from victims, community members, or informants, and 6 or 3 points are awarded upon the verification of communications or financial transfers to known members of the organization; likewise, sections intended to evaluate identifying elements such as tattoos, clothing, group photographs, or other symbols are included, with 4 points assigned to tattoos indicating membership or loyalty and 2 points to social media posts containing symbols or associated references.

The evidence presented by the ACLU includes guides developed by the Department of Homeland Security and the Border Patrol for the identification of alleged members of the Tren de Aragua, in which elements such as tattoos representing trains, crowns, stars, an AK-47 type weapon, watches, the Jordan symbol, or the phrase "Real until death" are highlighted, although discrepancies exist between both guides in the interpretation of certain criteria, for example with regard to the use of sportswear associated with teams such as the Chicago Bulls, indicating a difference in the evaluation of the element as indicative of membership.

The United States Department of Justice uses a point system to identify potential Tren de Aragua members:

Those that score less than eight points may still be deported at the discretion of the Immigration and Customs Enforcement.