The intelligence assessment concluded:
“Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro’s government doesn’t direct all of Tren de Aragua’s activities.”
This undermines the Trump administration’s claim that Venezuela constitutes an “enemy nation” actively controlling the gang’s actions within the U.S.
Legal Pushback Mounts
Legal experts are challenging Trump’s use of the Alien Enemies Act, arguing that the United States is not in a declared war.
“We haven’t had a declared war,” said Steve Vladeck, a Georgetown University law professor. “And no one has tried to argue that that invasion or predatory incursion language could be used in any context other than a conventional war.”
Before Trump, the law had only been invoked three times in U.S. history, always during formally declared wars.
