President Donald Trump issued an executive order targeting the violent Venezuelan migrant gang 'Tren de Aragua,' seeking to designate it as a foreign terrorist organization and cut off its funding.
President Donald Trump has taken a decisive step in his administration by issuing an executive order aimed at dismantling the violent Venezuelan migrant gang known as 'Tren de Aragua.' This gang, also referred to as 'TdA,' has been terrorizing American cities in recent months and has established a presence in over a dozen U.S. cities.
Experts believe that TdA is linked to the socialist Venezuelan dictator Nicolás Maduro and is being utilized as a tool of asymmetric warfare to incite chaos and discord within the United States. Jose Gustavo Arocha, a former high-ranking Venezuelan military official and senior fellow at the U.S.-based Center for a Secure Free Society, characterized the order as an 'extraordinary move' and hailed it as the 'first good step in the route to neutralize TdA.' The order, titled 'Designating Cartels And Other Organizations As Foreign Terrorist Organizations And Specially Designated Global Terrorists,' directs newly confirmed Secretary of State Marco Rubio to designate Tren de Aragua, along with Mexican gang MS-13 and other migrant gangs, as 'foreign terrorist organizations.' This designation grants the U.S. government expanded authority to combat criminal groups operating within the country. All government agencies, including the Department of the Treasury, can now target these groups from multiple angles. The order emphasizes that these groups 'present an unusual and extraordinary threat to the national security, foreign policy, and economy of the United States,' invoking the International Emergency Economic Powers Act (IEEP) to declare a national emergency and address these threats. The order explicitly states the U.S. policy of 'ensuring the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States through their extraterritorial command-and-control structures.' This aims to protect American citizens and the territorial integrity of the United States. The order grants Rubio 14 days to formulate policy recommendations, in collaboration with the secretaries of Treasury and Homeland Security, the U.S. attorney general, and the director of National Intelligence. These recommendations will focus on designating TdA, MS-13, and any other relevant group as a foreign terrorist organization. Arocha believes this move marks a potential turning point in ending TdA's reign of terror in the United States. He stated that the executive order signed by Trump is 'perfect to neutralize unconventional tools that were made by the Venezuela regime.' He emphasizes that TdA is an 'asymmetrical and unconventional tool to harm the United States, not only the United States, all the region… you have to use unconventional tools, too.' Joseph Humire, executive director of the Center for a Secure Free Society and author of a 2024 report outlining strategies to dismantle TdA, explained to Fox News Digital that designating these groups as foreign terrorist organizations elevates them to the highest level of U.S. national security interest. This means their funding sources and any organizations supporting them can be targeted. Humire declared that Trump has effectively 'put all of them on notice,' stating, 'We know you're here; we know you're up to no good and we're going to come after you.' Humire acknowledges that critics may argue that this action will create a 'war on terror or drugs' and perceive it as a reaction to fear. However, he counters that these criminal organizations 'only respond to strength. They prey on fear.' He believes that showing strength is the first step in deterrence.In addition to sending a message of strength, Humire asserts that the executive order signifies that 'meaningful action taking place really, really soon to start to arrest and dismantle' TdA's presence in the U.S. Andrew Arthur, a law and policy expert at the Center for Immigration Studies, highlights that a crucial aspect of designating TdA a foreign terrorist organization is the ability to target its funding, which he believes can essentially 'bleed them dry.' Arthur underscores that 'Money is the lifeblood of these organizations. It's really the funding element of all this that is crucial to going after a terrorist organization, because if you cut them off from the money, they're not going to be able to pay people.' The order represents a significant step in the U.S. government's efforts to combat the growing threat posed by transnational criminal organizations like Tren de Aragua.
TREN DE ARAGUA MS-13 Venezuelan Gang Foreign Terrorist Organization Donald Trump Executive Order National Security Immigration Law Enforcement
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