Attorney General Pam Bondi speaks to reporters in the briefing room at the White House on June 27, 2025. Madalina Kilroy/The Epoch Times
U.S. Attorney General Pam Bondi announced on June 27 that 2,711 alleged members of the gang Tren de Aragua (TDA) have been arrested in the United States since the beginning of the year.
TDA is a violent criminal organization that originated in Venezuela and has since spread throughout the United States and Latin America. It is engaged in the business of murder for hire, protection rackets, kidnapping, prostitution, theft, and trafficking of both narcotics and women. TDA often recruits young Hispanic men as its members; in the United States, a number of illegal immigrants are members of the group.
During the 2024 presidential election, then-candidate and former President Donald Trump vowed to target gangs such as TDA and Mara Salvatrucha (also known as “MS-13”). Since taking office, Trump has designated such groups as foreign terrorist organizations, which purportedly gives the U.S. government greater powers to apprehend their members within the United States and deport them.
“They are one of the most violent criminal organizations in the world,” Bondi said during a press conference at the White House. “You should all feel safer now that President Trump can deport all of these gangs.”
Bondi spoke after the Supreme Court announced its decision in the case of Trump v. CASA. The justices ruled that U.S. District Courts could not issue nationwide stays and injunctions that universally prohibit a certain government policy; they may issue only actions that are valid within their judicial districts. The ruling will make it difficult for opponents of the Trump administration to obtain preliminary stays of executive orders, proclamations, or other regulatory actions.
“Not one district court judge can think they’re an emperor over this administration, his executive powers, and why the people of the United States elected him,” Bondi said.
Many of the alleged TDA members arrested by the U.S. government, if they are foreign nationals, will be subject to removal proceedings to expel them from the United States.
The administration has been criticized for invoking the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to summarily remove alleged TDA members, often without a hearing as required by the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965.
While it may be difficult to determine just who is a TDA member, the Trump administration has claimed that the presence of certain tattoos indicates such gang affiliation. However, this metric has been criticized by defense attorneys, who claim that even innocuous tattoos may be interpreted as TDA tattoos and lead to detention.
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