When August brought tales of armed gang members taking over a housing complex in Aurora, Colorado, the Democratic reaction was to pooh-pooh claims of violent intimidation.
Shelby Wieman, a representative for Democratic Colorado Gov. Jared Polis mocked initial reports saying “according to police intelligence this purported invasion is largely a feature of Danielle Jurinsky’s imagination,” the New York Post reported. Jurinsky is a city council member who spoke out about gang activity.
As President Donald Trump was using his campaign to denounce the gang violence in Aurora, Polis, a supporter of illegal immigrants, said “It’s a great city,” according to KKTV, adding, “It’s safer than it’s been.”
He also downplayed gang violence by saying “violent crime is down two years in a row, car thefts are down two years in a row,” according to Politico.
That was, of course, long before 14 members of the Tren de Aragua gang were arrested in connection with a December kidnapping, as noted by Newsweek.
But while Democrats were in denial, Trump was planning, and on Saturday, Trump unveiled the fruits of his plan to stop the gang in its tracks — a proclamation based on the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport every gang member authorities can find.
“Tren de Aragua (TdA) is a designated Foreign Terrorist Organization with thousands of members, many of whom have unlawfully infiltrated the United States and are conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States,” Trump wrote in the proclamation issued Saturday.
Trump wrote that the Venezuela-based gang “has engaged in and continues to engage in mass illegal migration to the United States to further its objectives of harming United States citizens, undermining public safety, and supporting the Maduro regime’s goal of destabilizing democratic nations in the Americas, including the United States.”
The proclamation said the gang is aligned with Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro and has become “a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States.”
Should criminal illegal immigrants be deported without regard to due process?
“Evidence irrefutably demonstrates that TdA has invaded the United States and continues to invade, attempt to invade, and threaten to invade the country; perpetrated irregular warfare within the country; and used drug trafficking as a weapon against our citizens,” Trump wrote.
In light of the invasion, Trump said he was invoking the Alien Enemies Act, which allows the president to designate illegal immigrants considered a danger to be deported.
The proclamation said, “[A]ll Venezuelan citizens 14 years of age or older who are members of TdA, are within the United States, and are not actually naturalized or lawful permanent residents of the United States are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.”
Gang members “are subject to immediate apprehension, detention, and removal, and further that they shall not be permitted residence in the United States,” Trump wrote, adding that the Attorney General and Secretary of Homeland Security have the power to enlist local and state governments in support of his proclamation.
Trump said gang members are not eligible for time to settle their affairs before being deported, referring to 50 U.S.C. 22, which allows that for most enemy aliens.
According to CNN, the Alien Enemies Act has been invoked three times before in U.S. history during World Wars I and II to detain or expel groups considered a threat.
Trump’s effort to impose the act was blocked Saturday night by a federal judge, according to CBS.
James E. Boasberg, chief judge of the District Court for the U.S. District of Columbia, on Saturday, issued a temporary restraining order preventing Trump from deporting gang members for 14 days in response to a lawsuit filed by illegal immigrants currently in detention.
In spite of that, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said “hundreds of violent criminals were sent out of our country” after Trump’s proclamation was issued, according to CNN.
The order delivers on a pre-election promise.
“I will invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil,” he said during the presidential campaign, according to NPR.
“Those were the old days, when they had tough politicians,” he also said en route to winning the race for the White House. “Think of that, 1798. Oh, it’s a powerful act. You couldn’t pass something like that today.”
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