EXCLUSIVE: Arizona Lawmaker Introduces Resolution Supporting Trump’s Removal of Venezuelan Gang Members

A border state congressman has introduced a resolution in the House of Representatives to recognize and declare members and affiliates of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua as “alien enemies” under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 and the criminal organization itself as a “terrorist organization perpetrating an invasion of the United States directly and at the direction of a foreign government.” 

“Tren de Aragua is a foreign terrorist organization, and their members can no longer be permitted to wreak havoc on U.S. soil,” Rep. Andy Biggs, R-Ariz., told The Daily Signal.

“The Alien Enemies Act gives the president of the United States the authority to detain and deport aliens from foreign adversarial nations, and the U.S. Supreme Court affirmed that authority yesterday,” he said.

“Members of the violent gang Tren de Aragua illegally invaded the United States during Joe Biden’s four-year open-border campaign, and President Trump is acting well within his authority to protect our homeland,” Biggs said, adding:

Congress must stand behind President Trump as he works to fulfill the demands of the American people to secure our border and restore safety to our communities.

Biggs’ measure would make clear in law that the president “is exercising his constitutional and legal authority to repel an invasion of alien enemies by apprehending, restraining, securing, and removing members and affiliates of Tren de Aragua from the United States of America.”

The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 states that the president has the authority under the conditions of declared war or “any invasion or predatory incursion” to apprehend and remove “males of the age of fourteen years and upwards, who shall be within the United States, and not actually naturalized.” 

The Arizona lawmaker’s legislation contends that James Madison’s comments at the Virginia Ratifying Convention for the Constitution and definitions for “invasion” from Webster’s dictionaries in 1806 and 1828 clearly show that actions by non-state actors would be encompassed within the term.

According to Rep. Eli Crane, R-Ariz., cracking down on Tren de Aragua is a long time coming.

“For years, murderous gangs, including Tren de Aragua, inflicted terror on our communities with no repercussions,” Biggs’ fellow Arizona Republican lawmaker said.

“Thankfully, President Trump and his team continue to make historic progress towards ending this era of tragic lawlessness. I’m grateful for Rep. Andy Biggs’ leadership, and I’m proud to support his commonsense legislation to recognize these criminals as alien enemies,” Crane added.

Biggs’ measure would greatly bolster the president’s argument that he can remove members of Tren de Aragua who are in the United States illegally. If it makes it out of the House, it will then have to pass in the U.S. Senate, where it would need 60 votes to overcome a possible Democrat filibuster.

But getting bipartisan support for the measure may be less difficult than one might initially think: Twelve Democrats in the Senate voted in favor of the Laken Riley Act, another bill targeting criminal illegal aliens who may have committed crimes aside from entering the country unlawfully.

The Trump administration is currently in court over whether it lawfully deported hundreds of illegal migrants who were accused by the Trump administration of being members of Tren de Aragua and MS-13.

U.S. District Court Judge James Boasberg is expected to rule this week on whether members of the Trump administration are in contempt of court because they ignored his verbal order to bring back three planes carrying hundreds of illegal migrants to El Salvador.

Boasberg, who was appointed by President Barack Obama, has issued a temporary restraining order blocking the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan illegal aliens under the Alien Enemies Act. The Trump administration lost in its appeal of Boasberg’s order to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit. But on Monday the administration was granted a narrow win on jurisdictional grounds by the Supreme Court. The high court ruled that the administration can continue the deportations of illegal aliens from Venezuela for the time being and said that the illegal immigrants’ lawyers should have filed their complaint in Texas, rather than Washington, D.C., because Texas is where aliens targeted for deportation are being detained.

Reacting on Truth Social, the president characterized the Supreme Court ruling as upholding “the rule of law in our nation.”

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