Are Deported Tren de Aragua Suspects Receiving Due Process?

_WHAT’S HAPPENING_

Former ICE Director and current border czar Tom Homan is defending a wave of high-profile deportations of Venezuelan nationals, including suspected members of the violent Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang — a US-designated Foreign Terrorist Organization.

To speed up deportations, the Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798, which allows the president to order the apprehension, restraint, and removal of "natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects" of a hostile nation when there is a declared war, an invasion, or a predatory incursion against the United States.

Many deportees have been clear-cut cases. But some recent deportations have come under fire from critics who allege the removals are being done without proper due process.

_THE FACTS_

• Border czar Tom Homan confirmed 240 suspected members of Tren de Aragua were deported in a recent ICE operation.

• Homan said gang affiliation was identified using surveillance, wiretaps, informants, social media, and sworn testimony — not just criminal records.

• Many deportees had no prior convictions but were flagged through intelligence, linking them to organized criminal activity.

• The suspected gang members were flown to El Salvador to the extraordinarily harsh prisons constructed by President Nayib Bukele to house some of the worst criminals on the planet.

• On ABC’s Sunday show This Week, Homan was asked if the suspected gang members received any due process to prove their affiliation with Tren de Aragua before they were sent to prison.

• Homan responded, “What was Laken Riley’s due process? Where were all these young women that were killed and raped by TdA — where was their due process?”

• “The bottom line is that plane was full of people designed as terrorists,” Homan continued. “Every Venezuelan on that flight was a TdA member based on numerous criminal investigations, on intelligence reports, and a lot of work by ICE officers.”

• Independent journalist Glenn Greenwald noted that “All available evidence strongly suggests that at least one of the Venezuelans shipped to a monstrous prison in El Salvador for life has nothing to do with Tren De Aragua.”

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