Unreliable federal gang data and a heavy reliance on tattoos and clothing styles can skew the picture of this Venezuelan gang’s operations in America.
The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday handed the Trump administration a victory, backing the legality of the administration’s effort to deport accused members of the Venezuelan criminal gang known as Tren de Aragua under the Alien Enemies Act. The court also required the government to give the Venezuelans „reasonable time“ to contest their deportations.
Federal officials have framed the gang as a national scourge and an „invasion“, something gang experts say is likely overstated.
To justify the deportations, the federal government has relied heavily on clothing and tattoos to identify people as Tren de Aragua, for purposes of summary deportation — which eliminates the right to appear before a judge or to apply for legal status — under the Alien Enemies Act, according to court filings.
The global roster of Tren de Aragua gang members is unclear — though the administration has cited the arrest of migrants with past alleged connections as reason for the drive to remove Tren de Aragua from the United States. The Biden administration last summer classified the gang as a transnational criminal organization.
The symbols touted by federal officials as proof of gang membership, including rose and clock tattoos, are popular symbols with many Venezuelans, according to Ronna Rísquez, a Venezuelan investigative journalist who’s tracked the gang. As she’s told NPR, „Maybe there’s a Tren de Aragua member who has that tattoo, but that’s not enough to identify them as Tren de Aragua.“
Charles Katz, a professor at Arizona State University who has studied Latin American criminal gangs, says there is a huge difference between intelligence that may help police track members of a gang and actual evidence that could convict someone of gang-related crimes in a court of law.
