What Is Tren De Aragua?

President Donald Trump’s deportation of alleged foreign gang members, including the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, has made headlines, with his administration facing allegations that it is not following due process and wrongly imprisoning innocent people.

Tren de Aragua, which was designated a terrorist organization by the U.S. in February 2025, has been repeatedly mentioned by Trump as part of his hardened immigration crackdown.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed a new round of deportations earlier this week. After 10 men alleged to be gang members arrived at the high-security CECOT prison in El Salvador, Rubio wrote on social media that it was a blueprint “example for security and prosperity” between El Salvador and the U.S.

However, the administration has faced multiple lawsuits over similar deportation efforts, and some experts believe the gang’s presence in the U.S. is less significant than the government may suggest.

As Tren de Agua continues to gather attention amid further deportations, Newsweek has looked at the roots and development of Venezuelan gang.

What Is Tren De Aragua?

Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a Venezuelan prison gang. Thought to have been founded in 2014, it has developed into a transnational criminal organization.

InSight Crime, an international think tank specializing in research on organized crime and citizen security in the Americas, said TdA was formed within the Tocorón prison in the Venezuelan state of Aragua.

It rapidly expanded and took control of the prison, later taking hold of nearby neighborhoods, territories in Aragua, and states in Venezuela. Its criminal businesses included human trafficking for sexual exploitation, kidnapping, migrant smuggling, drug trafficking, and cybercrime

It expanded further around 2018, moving toward the Venezuela-Colombia border, carving a niche in migrant smuggling. Its international presence kept growing, building networks in Peru and Chile, with its foreign cells engaging in drug trafficking, kidnapping, and human trafficking.

In 2023, Venezuelan authorities announced they had taken back control of the Tocorón prison following a massive operation involving 11,000 troops, as reported by CNN.

Mike LaSusa, deputy director of content at InSight Crime, told Newsweek that TdA’s organizational structure had altered after the Tocorón raid, making it difficult to measure its presence in the Americas.

“Tren de Aragua has fragmented in the wake of the raid on Tocorón. There are groups across the Americas that are carrying out criminal activities under the name of Tren de Aragua, but those branches are becoming more autonomous as top leaders have been arrested in recent months and hierarchical control is weakening,” LaSusa said.

“That makes it difficult to estimate the scope [of] the gang’s activities, and exactly how much coordination is involved.”

TdA operations in the U.S., LaSusa added, have been considered amateurish.

“The criminal activities attributed to Tren de Aragua in the United States have been small-scale operations with relatively low barriers to entry,” he said.

“They do not suggest a high degree of criminal sophistication or a widespread presence of the gang.”

Why Is It in the News?

While the gang has been on the radar of security agencies for years, it made U.S. headlines in 2024 amid claims that Venezuelan gangs had taken over an apartment building in Colorado.

In August 2024, CCTV footage was shared widely online showing a gun-wielding group occupying a building in the city of Aurora. The footage attracted significant public, media, and political attention; Trump and his allies began claiming the gang had taken over Aurora, an allegation its mayor, Michael Coffman, called “grossly exaggerated.”

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The Aurora Police Department (APD) said the footage was recorded on August 18, 2024, and showed six armed men knocking on apartment doors about 10 minutes before a fatal shooting at the 1200 block of Dallas Street, northwest Aurora. Twenty-five-year-old Oswaldo Jose Dabion Araujo was shot and later died from his injuries.

APD subsequently issued warrants for the six men in the video on first-degree burglary and menacing charges. Five have been arrested since. One suspect, Adan Jose Ramirez-Sanchez, is still at large.

Agent Matthew Longshore, a public information officer for APD, told Newsweek that it had only confirmed one of the six men, Niefred Jose Serpa-Acosta, 20, as a member of TdA.

“I don’t believe we have confirmed anyone else from that viral video, but our investigation and documentation, with the assistance of Homeland Security Investigations, continues,” Longshore said.

In December 2024, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) told Newsweek two of the suspects in the footage, Danyeer Aramillo Meneses, 23, and Edilson Pena Angulo, 25, had been arrested in New York City and identified as TdA members.

Newsweek has contacted a media representative at ICE via email for comment, including information on whether any of the men in the video have since been deported.

APD also released details of another 10 men related to separate incidents that it said it had identified as members of TdA, some of whom were arrested on charges including attempted murder and kidnapping.

TdA was mentioned elsewhere in coverage surrounding the murder of 26-year-old nursing student Laken Riley, whose killer, Jose Ibarra, was reported to have TdA associations. However, the murder was understood to have been committed independently.

While these moments brought TdA to public attention, LaSusa told Newsweek that InSight Crime, using its own proprietary monitoring system and primary source evidence including federal court cases, found the gang’s presence in the U.S. was small, and saw no evidence of coordination among “cells” of the gang in the U.S or with other branches abroad.

Susa also questioned the notion that gangs can be binarily identified as members of TdA.

“Anyone can claim to be a member of Tren de Aragua. There’s no ‘official’ requirements for membership or any roster of members that we know of,” Susa said.

“The more important question is what is the nature of the relationship between the alleged members and the broader organization as a whole.

“We have not seen any evidence that alleged Tren de Aragua members in the United States are carrying out crimes on behalf of the gang writ large. There’s no evidence that they are taking orders from superiors, coordinating activities across various cells, or kicking up a percentage of their profits to the larger organization.

“Those are the kinds of things that would indicate that alleged members belonged to a larger structure, as opposed to just using the gang’s name.”

Despite this, Trump repeatedly mentioned the gang during his presidential campaign, announcing in October 2024 his plans to deport migrants linked to Tren de Aragua. It was named “Operation Aurora” after Aurora, Colorado. Trump also announced his plans to use the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 (AEA) to deport TdA members, which he quickly implemented upon his return to the White House.

What Is the US Government Doing?

On March 14, 2025, Trump signed a proclamation calling for the “immediate apprehension, detention, and removal” of alleged Tren de Aragua members within the U.S. under the AEA, an 18th-century wartime law passed as part of the Alien and Sedition Acts under President John Adams.

The AEA grants the U.S. president the authority to detain, restrict, or deport foreign nationals from a country at war with the United States.

On March 15, the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and at least five immigrants filed an appeal in the District of Columbia to prevent the president from invoking the AEA. The plaintiffs in the suit denied they were members of TdA.

D.C. Federal Judge James Boasberg issued a temporary restraining order to halt the deportation of plaintiffs. However, on March 16, the White House announced that it had “successfully arrested nearly 300 Tren de Aragua terrorists,” adding that “these heinous monsters were extracted and removed to El Salvador.”

El Salvador President Nayib Bukele posted on X, formerly Twitter, on March 16 that “the first 238 members of the Venezuelan criminal organization, Tren de Aragua, arrived in our country.”

“The United States will pay a very low fee for them, but a high one for us,” Bukele said.

Boasberg demanded answers from the government, and while an appeals court denied Trump’s request to have the restraining order overturned, the Supreme Court would later rule that the deportations could continue. However, justices said the administration could only continue to do if plaintiffs were allowed to argue their cases in court first.

“Critically, even the majority today agrees, and the federal government now admits, that individuals subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act are entitled to adequate notice and judicial review before they can be removed,” the four dissenting justices wrote.

Some deportations of alleged TdA members have been conducted under Title 8 immigration law, one unnamed senior State Department official told journalists at Semafor in March. At a press briefing on April 15, State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce dodged a question about whether 10 men sent to El Salvador last weekend were deported under AEA or Title 8.

Migrants deported under Title 8, a decades-old immigration law, are allowed to lodge asylum claims and will be granted an interview to argue their case. However, if they are deported, they are not allowed to attempt to reenter the country for five years, under threat of penalty, including prison.

“I would refer you to the Department of Homeland Security and DOJ, which makes those kinds of decisions,” Bruce said.

Newsweek has contacted DHS and the DOJ for comment

What Do Experts and Advocates Say?

Details in the ACLU lawsuit against the government showed how the Department of Homeland Security and its Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents had been identifying alleged members of TdA using criteria that included tattoos, individuals wearing “high-end urban streetwear” or attire from American sports teams with Venezuelan team members.

These categorizations and determinants have been challenged.

ACLU attorney Lee Gelernt told Newsweek in March: “We have serious doubts, based on information from experts, that tattoos are a reliable means of identifying alleged TdA members. And whatever methods the government is using, there must be an opportunity for the individual to contest the evidence.”

Mike LaSusa of InSight Crime added: “In some cases, U.S. authorities seem to be basing that determination on information that is not a reliable indicator of someone’s membership in the gang. The use of tattoos is a prominent example. Tren de Aragua does not use tattoos or other symbols to identify its members, so a determination based on that information would be questionable.”

LaSusa added that alleged links to the gang were “tenuous.”

“They are usually based on uncorroborated statements from witnesses, victims, or other sources,” he added.

Newsweek has contacted media representatives at the Department of State and ICE for comment.

Legal action against the government is continuing. A new lawsuit filed on Saturday by the ACLU requested a temporary restraining order on the deportation of migrants from Colorado and 30 days’ notice of any intent to remove them, ensuring they have adequate time to contest their cases.

The lawsuit says the government has not said how much notice it will give before seeking to remove individuals under the AEA. It claimed that at a Texas hearing on April 11, the government had not ruled out giving individuals no more than 24 hours’ notice.

And on Wednesday, Boasberg wrote in a 46-page Memorandum Opinion that there was probable cause to hold Trump administration officials in criminal contempt for the El Salvador deportations.

Boasberg wrote that the government’s actions, carrying out deportations despite the restraining order issued from the D.C. District Court, demonstrated “a willful disregard for its order, sufficient for the court to conclude that probable cause exists to find the government in criminal contempt.”

“The court does not reach such conclusion lightly or hastily; indeed, it has given defendants ample opportunity to rectify or explain their actions. None of their responses has been satisfactory,” Boasberg wrote.

Boasberg also criticized some of Trump’s claims about Tren de Aragua, saying there were no examples that the gang was conducting “irregular warfare” against the U.S., as the president had written in his March 15 proclamation ordering the deportations of alleged TdA members.

Newsweek has contacted a White House media representative via email for comment.

Where Are Deportees Being Sent?

Deportees have been sent to El Centro de Confinamiento del Terrorismo (CECOT)—a maximum-security facility widely condemned by human rights groups for its harsh conditions and mass incarceration practices.

Designed to hold 40,000 inmates, including mass murderers and drug traffickers, prisoners are confined in large, windowless cages with minimal furnishings of tiered metal bunks, an open toilet, and a cement basin.

Personal items, books, or even letters from family are banned. Prisoners spend 23.5 hours a day locked in their cells, with a brief, daily 30-minute window for exercise or religious activities in a central hallway. Meals are basic, consisting mainly of beans, rice, and plantains.

Security at CECOT is designed to make the complex unescapable. The facility is surrounded by electrified fences, 19 watchtowers, and patrolled by 1,000 armed guards, police, and soldiers.

The prison has become a symbol of Bukele’s aggressive policies that have targeted gang violence. El Salvador has been under a state of emergency since March 2022, following a deadly rampage by powerful street gangs.

In response, Bukele suspended fundamental rights, including access to legal counsel, and authorities have arrested more than 83,000 people with little to no due process, according to human rights organizations.

Bukele courted controversy this week during a visit to the White House when he said he lacked the “power” to return Maryland father Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who was mistakenly deported.

“How can I smuggle a terrorist into the United States?” Bukele said.

“Of course, I’m not going to do it. The question is preposterous.”

Abrego Garcia, 29, was sent to El Salvador on March 15, despite a 2019 court order prohibiting the return to his home country for fear of persecution by a gang there. U.S. officials have repeatedly said he is a member of the MS-13 gang, despite providing little evidence to support the claim.