Judge Skips Key Facts in Ordering Release of Alleged Tren de Aragua Couple
And improperly shifts the burden to the government to show ‘by clear, convincing, and unequivocal evidence’ they’re members of that terrorist organization
By Andrew R. Arthur on April 30, 2025
On April 25, Judge David Briones of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas (W.D. Texas) issued an order directing the government to release two aliens alleged to be members of Tren de Aragua (TdA) and subject to removal under the Alien Enemies Act (AEA), as well as barring the removal of any other alien in the W.D. Texas under the AEA unless the government gives them a 21-day heads-up to allow them to seek judicial review. The judge skipped a lot of key facts in that case and thus botched the burden the government must bear to remove such individuals. Those are not minor issues.
Tren de Aragua and Its Expansion into the United States. I have explained at some length of late the bases of the Trump administration’s attempts to remove alleged TdA members under the AEA. Here’s a quick recap.
TdA formed in a Venezuelan prison in approximately 2013, and then expanded its operations throughout South America, following an exodus of Venezuelan emigres from that economically and politically challenged nation.
Wherever the group has expanded, well-organized savage criminality has followed, and as hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals flooded illegally into the United States under the Biden administration, the group began making its mark in this country, as well.
In July 2024, Biden’s Treasury Department designated TdA as a transnational criminal organization (TCO), a move that “underscore[d] the escalating threat it poses to American communities” according to then- Under Secretary of the Treasury for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson at the time.
https://cis.org/Arthur/Judge-Skips-Key-Facts-Ordering-Release-Alleged-Tren-de-Aragua-Couple
