zirovsky

Tren de Aragua

The Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a transnational criminal organization founded in Aragua, Venezuela in 2014. Aside from Venezuela, the group’s territory including Bolivia, Brazil, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Peru, Panama, Trinidad and Tobago and the United States.

Acting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) director Todd M. Lyons described TdA as a dangerous foreign terrorist organization that has infiltrated the U.S. According to him, the group has a notorious presence on U.S. soil and its members are linked to heinous crimes including drug and weapons trafficking, human trafficking, murder and rape.

On January 20, 2025, Donald Trump signed an executive order initiating the process to designate the TdA and other transnational gangs and drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations. On February 20, 2025, it was officially enacted.

Franklin Jimenez Bracho

Franklin Jose Jimenez Bracho is a TdA member. He was wanted as a human trafficker and smuggler, according to the Florida Department of Law Enforcement (FDLE), which is based in Tallahassee, Leon County, Florida, USA.

FDLE special agents steered Bracho into a group of Florida Highway Patrol (FHP) troopers and Homeland Security Investigation (HSI) officers, who took him into custody. Why he was in Florida is unclear.

On March 21, 2025, Bracho was arrested in Florida, which marks the first arrest in the U.S. under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. The operation was a collaborative effort that included ICE, the FDLE, the HSI’s field office in Orlando, Orange County, Florida, the Federal Bureau of Investigation, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the office of the Osceola County, Florida sheriff.

Alien Enemies Act

In 1798, a set of four laws collectively known as the Alien and Sedition Acts was enacted in the U.S. These were the Alien Friends Act, the Alien Enemies Act, the Naturalization Act and the Sedition Act.

The Alien Enemies Act allows the U.S. president to detain non-citizens during times of war, invasion or predatory incursion. Before Trump, it was used by the country’s respective fourth, 28th, 32nd and 33rd presidents James Madison, Woodrow Wilson, Franklin D. Roosevelt and Harry S. Truman.

During the War of 1812, Madison invoked the Alien Enemies Act against British nationals. During World War I, Wilson invoked it against nationals of the Central Powers, which consisted of Austria-Hungary, Bulgaria, the German Empire and the Ottoman Empire.

On December 7, 1941, Roosevelt used the act to apprehend, restrain, secure and remove German, Italian and Japanese non-citizens. On July 14, 1945, Truman cited the act and issued a presidential proclamation that gave the attorney general authority to decide whether the enemy aliens within the continental U.S. are dangerous to the public peace and safety of the U.S., to order them removed and to create regulations governing their removal.

On March 15, 2025, Trump invoked the act against what he called an invasion being attempted or perpetrated by the TdA. On the same day, U.S. district judge James E. Boasberg posted a written order to block the policy for up to two weeks, pending a hearing scheduled for March 21, 2025.