Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the intelligence community is incorrect in its assessment that Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is not a proxy force of Nicolás Maduro’s government — an argument that has served as a justification for the Trump administration’s swift deportation of suspected gang members.
“They’re wrong,” Rubio said of the intelligence community assessment on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.”
The National Intelligence Council determined in a report that the Venezuelan government does not direct Tren de Aragua, contradicting the Trump administration’s claims used to invoke the Alien Enemies Act, which gives it the power to swiftly remove migrants it identifies as members of the gang. The memo was released under the Freedom of Information Act following a request by the Freedom of the Press Foundation.
“While Venezuela’s permissive environment enables TDA to operate, the Maduro regime probably does not have a policy of cooperating with TDA and is not directing TDA movement to and operations in the United States,” the report says.
The question of whether the Maduro government controls Tren de Aragua is at the center of a clash over the Trump administration’s ability to continue to deport suspected gang members under the Alien Enemies Act of 1798. In a March proclamation, President Trump invoked the act, which had only been invoked three previous times in U.S. history, treating suspected gang members like wartime enemies of the U.S. government. Mr. Trump had previously designated Tren de Aragua as a terrorist organization, along with MS-13 and other gangs and cartels.
Shortly after the March proclamation was signed, the administration used the Alien Enemies Act to remove more than 200 men, mostly Venezuelans, to a prison in El Salvador. An analysis by “60 Minutes” found that 75% of the Venezuelans deported had no criminal history.
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The move has sparked significant clashes with the federal courts, as the administration has pursued the swift apprehension and removal of Venezuelan nationals deemed alien enemies. On Friday, the Supreme Court said it would continue to block the Trump administration from deporting Venezuelan men detained in northern Texas while they pursue a challenge to their removals under the wartime Alien Enemies Act, maintaining an April directive.
Last week, Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard fired the two top officials who were leading the National Intelligence Council, Mike Collins, acting chair of National Intelligence Council, and his deputy, Maria Lagan-Riekhof, CBS News confirmed. NBC News reported those were the officials who oversaw the Tren de Aragua memo.
Rubio refuted the National Intelligence Council report, while pointing to an FBI assessment that he said he agrees with. He outlined that not only is Tren de Aragua “exported by the Venezuelan regime,” but that there are warnings that it’s also a terror organization that’s “already been operationalized” to target an opposition member of another country.
“The FBI agrees that not only is Tren de Aragua exported by the Venezuelan regime, but in fact, if you go back and see a Tren de Aragua member, all the evidence is there, and it’s growing every day, was actually contracted to murder an opposition member, I believe, in Chile a few months ago,” Rubio said.
Asked whether he completely rejects the intelligence community’s findings, Rubio said he agrees “100%” with the FBI’s findings. The FBI is overseen by the Trump administration’s Justice Department.
Rubio said “this is a prison gang that the Venezuelan government has actively encouraged to leave the country,” claiming that in some cases, “they’ve been in cooperation.” He added that suspected Tren de Aragua members who have been returned to Venezuela have been “greeted like heroes” at the airport.
“There’s no doubt in our mind, and in my mind, and in the FBI’s assessment that this is a group that the regime in Venezuela uses, not just to try to destabilize the United States, but to project power, like they did by murdering a member of the opposition in Chile,” Rubio said.