Federal agents arrested a former New Mexico Democrat judge and his wife on Thursday after they were accused of harboring a suspected member of Tren de Aragua at their home. 
Former Dona Ana County Magistrate Judge Jose “Joel” Cano and his wife, Nancy, were taken into custody by Immigration and Customs Enforcement at their home in Las Cruces, KFOX14 <a href="https://kfoxtv.com/news/local/home-of-ex-judge-raided-after-claims-of-hosting-tren-de-aragua-gang-member-in-las-cruces-cristhian-ortega-lopez-dona-ana-county-venezuela-joel-cano-nancy-tda-nm-hsi-homeland-security" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>. Both the 67-year-old former judge and his wife are <a href="https://apps.donaanacounty.org/www/sites/all/modules/dac/dac_inmates/dac_create_pdf.php?&amp;GCode=4&amp;FelonID=2500003171&amp;FelonPIC=387831&amp;CurrentFlag=0">charged</a> with tampering with evidence. 
The couple is currently in custody at the Dona Ana County Jail, awaiting their appearance in federal court. They were arrested as part of a probe by Homeland Security Investigations into their association with 23-year-old Cristhian Ortega-Lopez, who authorities say is linked to Tren de Aragua, a Venezuelan gang that has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration. Ortega-Lopez was arrested at the Canos&#8217; home in February. 
“Under President Trump, we have arrested over 150,000 aliens—including more than 600 members of the vicious Tren de Aragua gang,” Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem <a href="https://x.com/Sec_Noem/status/1915559976229052564">said</a>, commenting on the arrest. “If you are here illegally and break the law, we will hunt you down, arrest you and lock you up. That’s a promise.”
Cano resigned from his judgeship earlier this week and was banned by the New Mexico Supreme Court from holding any judicial office again. The court <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/us/new-mexico-supreme-court-bans-judge-after-alleged-tda-member-arrested-home">ordered</a> that Cano “shall never again hold, become a candidate for, run for, or stand for election to any New Mexico judicial office in the future.”
Ortega-Lopez, originally from Venezuela, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/dem-judge-resigns-after-harboring-alleged-tren-de-aragua-gang-member" target="_blank" rel="noopener">was accused</a> of illegal entry to the United States near Eagle Pass, Texas. He spent three days in Border Patrol custody before he was released because of overcrowded facilities at the Border Patrol’s South Laredo, Texas, processing center, according to court records, the Albuquerque Journal <a href="https://www.abqjournal.com/news/article_47926b51-d481-4aa9-8d76-5de8cc13809b.html?fbclid=IwY2xjawJwuu9leHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHn4jO0OhVrwODcJdaJgEwwkzhtKl5MdUs320h3z25_0FkfgnT9xnpoaAox6a_aem_F7zjdLNkrsY9LSG6RfZRmA">reported</a>. He met Nancy in El Paso, where he was working as a construction worker and handyman, and she offered for him to stay in a small house behind their home.
Ortega-Lopez has been charged with being an unlawful alien in possession of a firearm and ammunition, and is seen in court documents holding guns.
Cano has denied any knowledge of the suspected ties between Ortega-Lopez and Tren De Aragua. Investigators have said that they have text messages and voice mail messages that confirm the links to the notorious gang.
“Let me be as crystal clear as possible,” Cano <a href="https://www.koat.com/article/las-cruces-former-judge-allegations-gang-new-mexico/64583129" target="_blank" rel="noopener">told</a> the New Mexico Supreme Court. “The very first time I ever heard that the boys could possibly have any association with Tren de Aragua was when I was informed of that by [the] agents on the day of the raid.”

MixCollage-25-Apr-2025-09-44-AM-6237

Former Judge And Wife Arrested, Accused Of Housing Suspected Venezuelan Gang Member

Courts

Department of Homeland Security

Illegal Immigation

Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE)

Kristi Noem

New Mexico

Tren De Aragua

Venezuela

According to the FBI, some Venezuelan government officials, in order to erode public safety in the United States, “likely facilitate” the migration of Tren de Aragua gang members to the United States.
Tren de Aragua has been designated as a foreign terrorist organization by the Trump administration.
The Venezuelan move to destabilize other countries also includes Chile, Ecuador, and Peru, Fox News Digital <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/venezuelan-government-uses-tren-de-aragua-proxies-undermine-us-public-safety-fbi-assessment-finds" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, adding, “The FBI assesses that in the next six to 18 months, Venezuelan government officials likely will attempt to leverage Tren de Aragua members in the United States as proxy actors to threaten, abduct and kill members of the Venezuelan diaspora in the United States who are vocal critics of [Venezuala President Nicolás] Maduro and his regime.”
“These findings should shock Americans but not the law enforcement community,” an unnamed Trump administration official told Fox Digital. “They reflect the sentiments of numerous other intelligence assessments across multiple agencies. Nicholas Maduro is a Marxist dictator who hijacked a once-prosperous Venezuela and brought in nothing but total economic collapse and gang takeover. He crumbled Caracas, now overrun with drugs and violence, and wants to do the same across the United States by sending his most violent and dangerous criminals into our communities.&#8221;
“The Trump administration will continue to use every authority in our power to make sure these TdA terrorists, who are some of the worst in the world, are kept out of our country,&#8221; the official continued. “The American people voted overwhelmingly to make America safe again, and that is exactly what we will do.&#8221;
On April 18, the Associated Press <a href="https://apnews.com/article/trump-alien-enemies-act-venezuela-tren-de-aragua-103919f71db9a9e7a9a3de1028585483" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a>, “A new U.S. intelligence assessment found no coordination between Tren de Aragua and the Venezuelan government, contradicting statements that Trump administration officials have made to justify their invocation of the Alien Enemies Act and deporting Venezuelan migrants, according to U.S. officials. The classified assessment from the National Intelligence Council, released this month, is more comprehensive and authoritative than an earlier intelligence product released Feb. 26 and reported last month by The New York Times.”
Director of National Intelligence (DNI) Tulsi Gabbard reacted harshly, writing on X:
<blockquote>
The weaponization of intelligence to undermine the President’s agenda is an assault on democracy. Those behind this illegal leak of classified intelligence, twisted and manipulated to convey the exact opposite finding, will be held accountable under the full force of the law. Rooting out this politicization of intelligence is exactly what President Trump campaigned on and what Americans overwhelmingly voted for. The Office of the Director of National Intelligence fully supports the assessment that the foreign terrorist organization, Tren De Aragua, is acting with the support of the Maduro Regime, and thus subject to arrest, detention and removal as alien enemies of the United States.
</blockquote>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
The weaponization of intelligence to undermine the President’s agenda is an assault on democracy. Those behind this illegal leak of classified intelligence, twisted and manipulated to convey the exact opposite finding, will be held accountable under the full force of the law.…
&mdash; DNI Tulsi Gabbard (@DNIGabbard) <a href="https://twitter.com/DNIGabbard/status/1914449185618767911?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">April 21, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>
&nbsp;
An official from the office of DNI said the information Fox News Digital was reporting was “based on intelligence that the illegal leakers and propaganda media conveniently did not include because it gets in the way of their biased narrative and attempt to deceive the American people.”

27 alleged gang members indicted in New York City

FBI: Maduro’s Venezuelan Govt Helping Tren De Aragua Terrorist Group Migrate To U.S.

Nicolas Maduro

Politics

Terrorism

Terrorists

It’s hard to keep track of all the immigration cases that blew up once President Trump started securing our borders and enforcing U.S. immigration law only three months ago.
The latest <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/25897170-chnvparole041425/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">decision</a> by Massachusetts District Court judge Indira Talwani was an unjustified and baseless nationwide injunction blocking Trump’s decision last month to <a href="https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-admin-pulling-legal-status-more-than-530k-migrants" target="_blank" rel="noopener">end the parole status</a> for half a million Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan nationals.
Nationwide injunctions by federal judges are based on dubious authority and threaten the separation of powers doctrine in the Constitution – the checks and balances that hold this nation together. The sooner Congress and the Supreme Court implement and enforce clear limits on this, the better.
But it’s not just the sweeping executive power that Judge Talwani, an Obama appointee, asserts is the problem. It’s also the bewildering double-standard applied to the Biden and Trump administrations on immigration.
Americans want to believe that once appointed, judges do their best to follow the Constitution and the law. But it gets harder each time we see a ruling that stretches logic and law to reach a conclusion that aligns with politics. We’ve seen so many in the past few years, including the many “<a href="https://www.wsj.com/video/series/wonder-land-henninger/wsj-opinion-the-high-price-of-democrats-anti-trump-lawfare/04D0426F-2196-433D-B6FF-56BCA3688D79?mod=bizbuysell_trending_now_video_pos1" target="_blank" rel="noopener">lawfare</a>” cases brought against President Trump since his first term.
Let’s get our heads around immigration parole. Aliens who want to come to the U.S. need a visa. In exceptional cases, Congress provided a <a href="https://uscode.house.gov/view.xhtml?req=granuleid:USC-prelim-title8-section1182&amp;num=0&amp;edition=prelim" target="_blank" rel="noopener">limited power</a> for the executive (exercised by the President through his Secretary of Homeland Security) to parole aliens for limited periods. When that period ends, they go back to whatever status they had before.
In 1996, Congress tightened the rules, clarifying that parole could only be granted on a “case-by-case basis,” and strictly “for urgent humanitarian reasons” or a “significant public benefit.” Parole isn’t a path to permanent status.
Blatantly violating the clear limits set by Congress, Biden perverted parole to invent a slew of “McVisa” programs to benefit groups he liked and to bypass numerical caps.
Biden’s DHS started paroling illegal aliens caught at the border, arguing that they didn’t have room to detain them. This <a href="https://cis.org/Arthur/Federal-Judge-Vacates-Bidens-ParoleATD-Border-Release-Policy" target="_blank" rel="noopener">“Parole+ATD”</a> was shut down by a federal judge who <a href="https://legacy.myfloridalegal.com/webfiles.nsf/WF/GPEY-CPQPAB/%24file/final%20order.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">found</a> the president didn’t have the authority to give illegal aliens a free pass into the country.
In August 2021, Biden invented Operation Allies Welcome to let in thousands of Afghans. In theory, these were supposed to be the ones who’d helped the U.S. and whose lives might be in danger under the Taliban, but in practice, many got in through fraud or had nothing to do with our efforts in their country. Some were even criminals and suspected terrorists.
Then in April 2022, Biden <a href="https://www.dhs.gov/ukraine" target="_blank" rel="noopener">began</a> a Uniting for Ukraine program to bring people in from that country, even though (a) you might wonder why the men weren’t home fighting Russia, and (b) why they could not have claimed asylum in neighboring European countries instead of the U.S.
In January 2023, Biden <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/statements-releases/2023/01/05/fact-sheet-biden-harris-administration-announces-new-border-enforcement-actions/">rolled out</a> a Cuban, Haitian, Nicaraguan, and Venezuelan Parole program allowing up to 30,000 nationals from those four countries per month to enter the U.S.
Then he added up to 1,400 appointments a day for nationals of any country to schedule their illegal entry into the U.S. using the <a href="https://cis.org/Arthur/Whats-Biden-Doing-Migrants-Ports-Entry">CBP One</a> phone app, as long as they claimed to be in Mexico. Nearly all of them ended up getting <a href="https://cis.org/Arthur/958-Percent-Illegal-Migrants-Who-Preschedule-Their-Illegal-Entries-Are-Allowed">paroled</a> once they showed up at a U.S. port of entry.
Finally, in June 2024, Biden tried but failed to give a de facto amnesty via parole to over a million illegal aliens who were married to American citizens. Who knows how far a “President Harris” could have continued with parole-a-palooza, had she won.
All told, Biden used bogus parole programs to bring in over 1.5 million inadmissible illegal aliens.
Even though the law specifically says a president can’t use parole to bypass the U.S. official refugee program, that was clearly the intent. The Biden administration expected them all to claim asylum and live here while their cases dragged on for years or decades. But not all of them bothered to make that claim, figuring parole would just be extended. Bad bet.
Trump revoked the CHNV parole – as was his rightful power as president – in March. What Biden did, even if it wasn’t right, Trump had the power to undo.
For Judge Talwani to now tell Trump he can’t revoke parole for 530,000 paroled CHNV nationals without a “case-by-case” review is rich indeed. Does she seriously think that every one of the 30,000 CHNV applicants Biden let in per month was examined and approved on a “case-by-case” basis? Sure, if we say every fan let into Yankee Stadium for a game has been admitted “case-by-case.” If it simply means ‘one-by-one’, then Secretary of Homeland Security Noem can certify that, and it will be just as true as it was when former Secretary Mayorkas did.
Federal immigration law is very clear that the president has wide discretion to deny or revoke visas and remove aliens on national security or discretionary grounds. He can do or undo parole as well.
Joe Biden violated the law when he provided mass parole to hundreds of thousands of illegal aliens. No judge should be able to stop a successor president from undoing the harm a prior president has done, particularly harm that was done by ignoring, twisting, and breaking the law.
* * *
Simon Hankinson is a Senior Research Fellow in the Border Security and Immigration Center at The Heritage Foundation.
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.

White House Homeland Security Advisor And Deputy Chief Of Staff Stephen Miller Speaks To The Media At The White House

Liberal Judge Tries To Block Trump Over Bogus Biden-Era Parole For Countless Illegals

Biden Administration

Constitution

Heritage Foundation

illegal immigrants

Judges

Massachusetts

Migrants

Obama Administration

Opinion

President Trump

A federal judge on Monday blocked the Trump administration from ending a Biden-era program that provided legal status to hundreds of thousands of foreign nationals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela. 
U.S. District Judge Indira Talwani said that the Trump administration could not end former President Joe Biden’s CHNV (Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela) immigration parole program without granting a case-by-case review to its more than 500,000 recipients. In her decision, Talwani sided with a number of <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/trump-admin-tells-hundreds-of-thousands-of-biden-paroled-aliens-in-u-s-to-leave" target="_blank" rel="noopener">CHNV recipients</a> who had sued the Trump administration over the decision to end the program early on April 24.  
“The immediate impact of the shortening of their grant of parole is to cause their lawful status in the United States to lapse early — in less than two weeks. If their parole status is allowed to lapse, Plaintiffs will be faced with two unfavorable options: continue following the law and leave the country on their own, or await removal proceedings,” Talwani, an Obama appointee, wrote in a 41-page ruling. 
Talwani said that the Trump administration hadn’t considered humanitarian reasons when it moved to end the program. 
Biden began the program first for Venezuelans in 2022 before expanding it to include the other three countries in 2023. Each month, this allowed tens of thousands of people from each country to obtain legal protections in the United States, known as immigration parole. The Biden administration billed the program as a way to decrease illegal immigration from the CHNV countries by creating “legal pathways” for those immigrants to use instead of trying to unlawfully cross the southern border. 
Each recipient was supposed to be vetted for national security purposes and had to prove they had a financial sponsor already in the United States. The Trump administration has argued that the Biden administration poorly vetted those it allowed into the country. Some data from the program showed evidence of fraud, as <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/investigations/biden-admin-may-restart-immigration-program-paused-for-possible-fraud-rcna168440" target="_blank" rel="noopener">one review</a> found that 3,218 people applied to sponsor around 101,000 migrants. 
President Donald Trump directed the program to be shut down, and the Department of Homeland Security published a <a href="https://public-inspection.federalregister.gov/2025-05128.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener">notice</a> in the Federal Register on March 25 revealing its decision to terminate the program by April 24. 
“These programs do not serve a significant public benefit, are not necessary to reduce levels of illegal immigration, did not sufficiently mitigate the domestic effects of illegal immigration, are not serving their intended purposes, and are inconsistent with the Administration’s foreign policy goals,” DHS said in its notice. 
The department added that it planned to remove individuals from the program after the April 24 expiration and encouraged recipients to voluntarily leave the country before that deadline.
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller called the ruling an example of &#8220;judicial tyranny.&#8221;
&#8220;Marxist judge orders federal government to provide amnesty to half a million illegal aliens that Biden criminally flew into American towns,&#8221; he posted on X. &#8220;This is a legal insurrection against democracy itself.&#8221;

Deported migrants from the USA in Venezuela

Judge Says Trump Admin Cannot End Biden Program That Gave Legal Status To 500,000+ Migrants

Cuba

Haiti

Joe Biden

Nicaragua

Trump Administration

A federal judge in San Francisco moved to postpone the Trump administration from ending a Biden-era program that shielded hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan migrants from deportation. 
U.S. Senior District Judge Edward Chen ordered the Department of Homeland Security to postpone revoking temporary protected status (TPS) for 348,202 Venezuelans living in the United States who were given work authorization and shielded from deportation by the Biden administration in October 2023. Chen said the revocation would cause &#8220;irreparable harm” and hurt the economy. 
The decision comes after Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/noem-ends-biden-program-shielding-thousands-of-venezuelans-from-deportation" target="_blank" rel="noopener">announced</a> that she was revoking the TPS status, saying that conditions had improved in Venezuela and that it was not in America’s best interest to maintain the program. In response, a group called the National TPS Alliance sued to block Noem’s decision. 
Chen sided with the National TPS Alliance in his order and said that Noem’s decision was not backed by evidence, including allegations of gang affiliations. Noem had said there was an increased presence of Venezuelan gang members connected to Tren de Aragua.
Chen said that this argument was “baseless and smacks of racism predicated on generalized false stereotypes.”
“The Secretary’s rationale is entirely lacking in evidentiary support,” Chen said in his ruling. “For example, there is no evidence that Venezuelan TPS holders are members of the TdA gang, have connections to the gang, and/or commit crimes.”
The Obama-appointed judge also claimed that TPS recipients were more educated, more involved in the workforce, and less likely to commit crimes than American citizens. 
Chen said that the TPS recipients “have higher education attainment than most U.S. citizens (40-54% have bachelor degrees), have high labor participation rates (80-96%), earn nearly all their personal income (96%), and annually contribute billions of dollars to the U.S. economy and pay hundreds of millions, if not billions, in social security taxes. They also have lower rates of criminality than the general U.S. population.”
In response to Chen&#8217;s decision, Trump border czar Tom Homan <a href="https://x.com/RapidResponse47/status/1907037653368709390" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> that TPS status was meant to be temporary, not a “decades-long” program. Homan said the ruling was based on an &#8220;activist judge&#8217;s&#8221; opinion. 
“President Trump is going to do his job by rule of law. The law says temporary status,” Homan told Fox News. “Once the conditions change, then people should be removed from the United States. It’s only a temporary status.&#8221;

US-VENEZUELA-CRISIS-POLITICS-MIGRATION

Judge Says Trump Admin Must Keep Biden-Era Program Shielding Venezuelans From Deportation

Illegal Immigration

San Francisco

An illegal alien who took to social media to encourage other illegal aliens to squat in abandoned houses has been deported back to Venezuela.
Venezuelan national Leonel Moreno went viral on TikTok last year when he showed off a stack of dollar bills, boasted about handouts from the federal government, and encouraged other illegal aliens to squat in uninhabited houses in the United States.
“I didn’t cross the Rio Grande to work like a slave,” he said in one video posted to TikTok. Now Moreno has been <a href="https://nypost.com/2025/03/28/us-news/migrant-influencer-leonel-moreno-deported-to-venezuela/">sent back</a> to his home country of Venezuela.
Moreno crossed the southern border and into Eagle Pass, Texas, under the Biden administration on April 23, 2022. He was released into the interior of the country and failed to appear for check-ins with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE), leading to his arrest in Columbus, Ohio, in March 2024.
The 27-year-old Venezuelan national was <a href="https://nypost.com/2024/09/16/us-news/migrant-influencer-leonel-moreno-who-encouraged-migrants-to-be-squatters-is-ordered-deported/">ordered</a> to be deported from the United States on September 9th, 2024, but Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro had stopped accepting deportation flights into the country earlier that year in retaliation to the reimposition of economic sanctions against the country. Venezuela began accepting deportation flights from the United States after President Donald Trump took office earlier this year.
Moreno caused a disruption on his deportation flight back to his home country and had to be sectioned off in his own area of the plane with extra security, though it is unclear what exactly he did to start the disturbance. Diosdado Cabell, Venezuela’s Minister of Interior, Justice and Peace, said that Moreno was “welcome” back to the country.
The deportation of Moreno comes as the Trump administration is locked in a legal battle over the expedited removal of other Venezuelan nationals connected to the violent gang and foreign terror organization Tren de Aragua.
Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act to expedite the deportations of Tren de Aragua members, but the move has been halted by a left-wing, <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/meet-the-obama-appointed-judge-trying-to-stop-trump-from-deporting-criminal-illegals">Obama-appointed federal judge</a>. That injunction was recently upheld by a federal judge who <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/judge-who-upheld-block-of-trumps-deportation-flights-is-a-major-dem-donor">donated</a> to Democratic candidates and volunteered for the Obama campaign.

Deportation Flight

Illegal Alien Who Urged Others To Cross Border, Squat In American Homes, Deported Back To Venezuela

Deportations

Immigration

World

President Donald Trump announced on Monday that any nation that purchases oil from Venezuela would be hit with a 25% tariff by the United States.
Trump <a href="https://truthsocial.com/@realDonaldTrump/posts/114217914259825110" target="_blank" rel="noopener">wrote</a> on Truth Social that the &#8220;Secondary Tariff&#8221; on Venezuela is in response to the country &#8220;purposefully and deceitfully&#8221; sending violent criminals to the United States. The Trump administration has begun deporting alleged violent Venezuelan illegal immigrants to El Salvador, where they are being held in a notorious prison.
&#8220;Among the gangs they sent to the United States, is Tren de Aragua, which has been given the designation of &#8216;Foreign Terrorist Organization.&#8217; We are in the process of returning them to Venezuela — It is a big task!&#8221; Trump said. &#8220;In addition, Venezuela has been very hostile to the United States and the Freedoms which we espouse. Therefore, any Country that purchases Oil and/or Gas from Venezuela will be forced to pay a Tariff of 25% to the United States on any Trade they do with our Country.&#8221;
The tariff is set to go into effect on April 2, which Trump has dubbed &#8220;Liberation Day in America,&#8221; when he is expected to announce large-scale <a href="https://fortune.com/2025/03/22/trump-tariffs-reciprocal-duties-liberation-targeted-levies/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reciprocal tariffs</a> on American trade partners. Venezuela&#8217;s oil exports rose by 10.5% in 2024, which included shipments to the United States by major U.S. oil company Chevron, Reuters <a href="https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/venezuelas-2024-oil-exports-climb-105-amid-political-turmoil-2025-01-03/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">reported</a> in January. Earlier this month, Trump <a href="https://www.reuters.com/markets/commodities/us-orders-wind-down-chevrons-oil-exports-venezuela-30-days-2025-03-04/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">issued</a> a 30-day wind-down of the license the United States government granted to Chevron in 2022 to export Venezuelan oil. Chevron will have until April 3 to slow down its operation in the South American country.
The top destinations for Venezuelan oil exports include the United States, China, India, and Spain.
The Trump administration has condemned Venezuelan dictator Nicolas Maduro for claiming election victory last July despite evidence pointing to Maduro losing the election in a landslide. Both Trump and Secretary of State Marco Rubio have also accused Maduro of purposefully sending violent gang members to the United States illegally through the southern border.
&#8220;He is allowing Iran to operate out of Venezuela. He is allowing the Chinese to operate out of Venezuela. He’s threatening his neighbors in the region. He has flooded us with gang members — flooded with these Tren de Aragua gang members that are in this country doing terrible things,&#8221; Rubio <a href="https://floridapolitics.com/archives/723214-rubio-maduro/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">said</a> last month. &#8220;Why would we want someone like that to be there?&#8221;

Donald Trump

Trump Slaps Tariff On All Countries That Buy Oil From Venezuela

Executive

Oil and Gas

Tariffs

National Security Adviser Mike Waltz defended over the weekend the administration&#8217;s use of the Alien Enemies Act to deport members of the Venezuelan illegal alien terrorist group Tren de Aragua.
Waltz made the remarks during a Sunday CBS News interview with Margaret Brennan on &#8220;Face The Nation&#8221; when asked about approximately 250 members of Tren de Aragua who were deported several days ago to El Salvador.
&#8220;President Trump has determined that this group is acting as a terrorist organization,&#8221; he said. &#8220;It is terrorizing our communities through attacks, torture, rape and the most awful of situations for those communities, number one.&#8221;
&#8220;And, number two, the Alien Sedition Act fully applies because we have also determined that this group is acting as a proxy of the Maduro regime,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;TDA is acting as a proxy of the Maduro regime. This is how the Alien [Enemies] Act applies. And we cannot have district judges interfering with the commander in chief&#8217;s actions to take care of in the way he deems necessary a terrorist organization.&#8221;
Waltz said that Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolas Maduro was &#8220;deliberately emptying his prisons in a proxy manner to influence and attack the United States.&#8221;
WATCH:
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
White House National Security Adviser Mike Waltz defends the Trump administration&#8217;s use of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act to deport alleged Tren de Aragua gang members, telling <a href="https://twitter.com/margbrennan?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@margbrennan</a>, &#8220;this group is acting as a proxy of the Maduro regime.&#8221;
When asked if the administration has… <a href="https://t.co/TQW503BcnF">pic.twitter.com/TQW503BcnF</a>
— Face The Nation (@FaceTheNation) <a href="https://twitter.com/FaceTheNation/status/1903860601316917745?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2025</a></blockquote>

SAUDI-US-UKRAINE-CONFLICT-TALKS-DIPLOMACY

Waltz Defends Use Of Alien Enemies Act To Remove Tren De Aragua Terrorists

Mike Waltz

Border Czar Tom Homan said over the weekend that federal investigators relied on a variety of techniques to identify the illegal aliens who were arrested and deported in recent days for being members of Tren de Aragua — a Venezuelan Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO).
Homan made the remarks during a Sunday interview on ABC News&#8217; &#8220;This Week&#8221; with Jonathan Karl when asked about the deportation flights removing the terrorists from the country.
&#8220;As far as the Venezuelans on that flight, every single one, according to the information given to me from the field, are members of the TDA,&#8221; Homan said, referring to the group by its acronym. &#8220;And TDA has been determined to be a terrorist organization. They are now classified as terrorists. So that plane removed 240 terrorists from the United States.&#8221;
When asked how law enforcement identified those individuals as part of the terrorist organization, Homan said that there were numerous techniques and methods involved.
&#8220;A lot of gang members don&#8217;t have criminal histories. Just like a lot of terrorists in this world, they’re not in any terrorist database, right?&#8221; he said. &#8220;We only know information, what’s in databases based on – for instance, most terrorists we arrest that are identified by the U.S. government are later identified through a Title III investigation or through an undercover operation. They&#8217;re not in any terror screening database.&#8221;
&#8220;A lot of gang members &#8212; I started as cop in 1984 &#8212; many gang members don&#8217;t have a criminal history,&#8221; he continued. &#8220;So, we have to count on social media. We have to count on surveillance techniques. We had to count on sworn statements from other gang members. We had to count on, you know, wiretaps and Title III, to everything involved with criminal investigations.&#8221;
He emphasized that just because someone has not been arrested or charged with a crime before doesn&#8217;t mean that they are not part of a gang or terrorist group.
&#8220;A lot of officers, a lot of criminal investigators, special agents who&#8217;ve done this for decades looked at the intelligence information, the criminal investigation information, all their various social media and surveillance and government records and public records, and they are confident that they&#8217;re all members of the TDA,&#8221; he said.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
When pressed by <a href="https://twitter.com/jonkarl?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@JonKarl</a> about due process for deported migrants allegedly tied to gangs, Trump border czar Tom Homan says officials are “confident they’re all members of the TDA.”
&quot;We&#39;re actually using the laws on the books to enforce immigration laws.” <a href="https://t.co/oO9fEVxwH1">https://t.co/oO9fEVxwH1</a> <a href="https://t.co/0ESncDBUhC">pic.twitter.com/0ESncDBUhC</a>
&mdash; This Week (@ThisWeekABC) <a href="https://twitter.com/ThisWeekABC/status/1903805861119578380?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 23, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

Tom Homan at roundtable

Homan Explains How Officials Identified TDA Gang Members Who Got Deported

Tom Homan

U.S.

White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller schooled CNN anchor Kasie Hunt about whether President Donald Trump had the right to deport hundreds of suspected Venezuelan gang members to El Salvador, which a judge had tried to block.
On Saturday, United States District Judge James Boasberg ordered the Trump administration to return any flights carrying the suspected gang members. But the Trump administration declared that the flights were already over international waters, and thus, Boasberg&#8217;s order was not applicable. On Monday, Boasberg <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/judge-gives-trump-admin-deadline-to-provide-sworn-declaration-on-gang-member-deportations">ordered</a> the Trump administration’s Department of Justice to provide a sworn declaration providing additional justifications for the deportation flights.
Prior to his confrontation with Hunt, Miller had already stated that Boasberg’s initial order was “patently unlawful. Beyond unlawful, it was an outrageous assault on the Constitution, an outrageous assault on the sovereignty of the nation and on democracy itself.”
“You called the judge&#8217;s order just earlier today, quote, &#8216;patently unlawful,&#8217; and said that it was an assault on democracy itself. Does that mean that the administration is ignoring this order? And might you ignore future court orders that meet the criteria you laid out?” Hunt asked.
“The president of the United States and his administration reserve all rights under the Constitution to conduct national security operations in defense of the United States,” Miller replied. &#8220;The Alien Enemies Act, which was passed into law by the founding generation of this country, men like John Adams, was written explicitly to give the president the authority to repel an alien invasion of the United States. That is not something that a district court judge has any authority whatsoever to interfere with, to enjoin, to restrict, or to restrain in any way. You can read the law yourself. There&#8217;s not one clause in that law that makes it subject to judicial review, let alone district court review.”
“At what point does it become, in your view, legal for the justice system to be looking at this and making a judgment? And I fail to see how there&#8217;s any other way but to start with where we&#8217;re starting here before you get to eventually the Supreme Court,” Hunt posited.
Miller then explained how the law works, answering, “There&#8217;s a term in law, justiciable. This is not justiciable. In other words, this is not subject to judicial remedy. When the president is exercising his Article II powers to defend the country against an invasion or to repel a foreign terrorist that is unlawfully in the country, he&#8217;s exercising his core Article II powers as commander-in-chief.”
“Is Venezuela invading the U.S.?” Hunt asked.
“This is a very important point. This is a Title 50 authority. It&#8217;s a commander-in-chief authority. So, just to ask you a simple question. You talk about how the system works. Does a district court judge have the right to direct or enjoin troop movements overseas? Yes or no?” Miller asked bluntly.
“Is Venezuela — is Venezuela invading our country in a way that would apply in a way?” Hunt pressed.
“I&#8217;ll answer yours and you&#8217;ll answer mine,” Miller said, then stated, “Under the terms of the statute, Tren de Aragua is an alien enemy force that has come here as detailed at length in the proclamation at the direction of the Venezuelan government. The statute says that a president has the ability to repel an invasion or predatory incursion that is directed —”
“By a state or a government, right? Are they a state or a government?” Hunt interjected.
“Yes, it is documented,” Miller fired back. “The TDA was sent by the Venezuelan government in the proclamation. And here&#8217;s an even more important point. Under the Constitution, who makes that determination? A district court judge elected by no one or the commander in chief of the Army and Navy? The president and the president alone makes a decision of what triggers that determination.
“So, do you think we are actually at war with Venezuela, the nation-state of Venezuela?” Hunt patronized.
“You&#8217;re not hearing me and you&#8217;re not understanding me,” Miller answered. “Read the statute. Alien Enemies Act 1798. It says if a predatory incursion is perpetrated by a foreign government. So it lists the three qualifying actions, it could be an act of war.”
Hunt tried debating, “It does say in the very beginning there has to be a declared war against a nation or a state. That&#8217;s what it says.”
Miller crushed the response: “No. Wrong. Look up the statute. It&#8217;s on my account on social media &#8230; it says or a predatory incursion, or an invasion. The statute delineates three criteria for triggering the Alien Enemies Act. One is an act of war, which, by the way, an invasion is an act of war. But put that aside. One is an invasion, which this is. One is a predatory incursion, which this is. So it actually meets all three statutory criteria. But with respect to this particular statute, it&#8217;s the proclamation is utilizing the incursion and invasion language in the statute.”
“A district court judge can no more enjoin the expulsion of foreign terrorists to foreign soil, that he can direct the movement of Air Force One, that he can direct the movement of an aircraft carrier, that he can direct Marco Rubio to engage,” Miller pointed out. “How are you going to expel illegal alien invaders from our country who are raping little girls, who are murdering little girls, if each and every deportation has to be adjudicated in a district court judge? And that means you have no country. It means you have no sovereignty. It means you have no future. It is fundamentally incompatible to have a country and have individual expulsions adjudicated by a single district court judge.”
“By the way,” Miller said later, “These same district court judges didn&#8217;t do a damn thing to stop Joe Biden from flooding this nation with millions of illegal aliens. Did these district court judges issue any injunctions to save the lives of Jocelyn Nungaray, Laken Riley, or anyone else?”
“I asked you a question, you never answered it,” Miller stated. “Can a judge enjoin troop movements overseas? Can a district court judge enjoin troop movements overseas? Yes or no? &#8230; Just say no and then you&#8217;ll know that I&#8217;m right.”
“I am outraged that you have Democrats defending Tren de Aragua instead of celebrating President Trump expelling these terrorists from our midst. And I&#8217;m glad for the opportunity to explain how the separation of powers does work,” he concluded.
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet" data-width="500" data-dnt="true">
WATCH IN FULL: White House Deputy Chief of Staff <a href="https://twitter.com/StephenM?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@StephenM</a> schools Fake News CNN&#39;s <a href="https://twitter.com/kasie?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@kasie</a> on the Constitution, the separation of powers, and the rule of law. <a href="https://t.co/2TMnKyBLwk">pic.twitter.com/2TMnKyBLwk</a>
&mdash; Rapid Response 47 (@RapidResponse47) <a href="https://twitter.com/RapidResponse47/status/1901741630618489054?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">March 17, 2025</a></blockquote>
<script async src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" charset="utf-8"></script>

White House Deputy Chief Of Staff Stephen Miller Speaks To Reporters

‘No. Wrong’: Stephen Miller Crushes CNN’s Kasie Hunt, Schools Her On Deportations

Kasie Hunt

Media

Stephen Miller

Freedom of speech is under <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/topic/censorship" target="_blank" rel="noopener">attack</a>, not just in authoritarian regimes like Russia, North Korea, or Venezuela, but also in Western nations that once championed it. I know because I’ve lived through it before.
I was born and raised in Venezuela, where opposing the socialist regime came at a high cost. From a young age, I spoke out against tyranny. In a country that does not tolerate dissent, that meant facing real consequences. I was expelled from my university simply for questioning communist propaganda in class. Soon after, I was accused of being a “terrorist” for my political beliefs.
Now, living in the United States, I cherish the ability to speak freely. But that appreciation comes with deep concern. I am now witnessing Western nations — once bastions of liberty — embrace restrictions on speech under the guise of fighting hate and misinformation. What’s even more alarming is that many young people in my own generation champion this threat to free speech.
<h3>Thought Police In Action</h3>
In February, CBS <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/germany-online-hate-speech-prosecution-60-minutes/">aired</a> an interview with German officials who openly admitted that the German government is using its power to criminalize &#8220;hate or toxic speech.&#8221; When journalist Sharyn Alfonsi asked whether publishing an insult or a lie was a crime, the German prosecutors <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/cbs-claims-free-speech-caused-the-holocaust" target="_blank" rel="noopener">answered</a> without hesitation, &#8220;Yes.&#8221; In Germany, law enforcement raids homes, fines citizens, and even imprisons those whose speech is deemed offensive, controversial, or false.
Sadly, Germany is not the only country to adopt this Orwellian totalitarianism. In the United Kingdom, a nation with a rich history of constitutionalism, common law, and freedom, people are now being <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/cev9nxnygzpo">investigated</a> for tweets, and others are being fined or imprisoned for posting memes. Nations that should represent the best of civility and debate are sailing the seas of totalitarianism, where the state dictates what can and cannot be said.
Many Americans might dismiss this as a European problem, convinced such extreme measures could never take hold in the U.S. Nevertheless, the same mindset is creeping into American universities, where ideological obedience is enforced at the expense of free and open debate.
<h3>American Students Are Turning Against Free Speech</h3>
A <a href="https://public.tableau.com/app/profile/college.pulse/viz/2024CollegeFreeSpeechRankings/2024CollegeFreeSpeechRankings?publish=yes" target="_blank" rel="noopener">survey</a> conducted by the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (<a href="https://www.thefire.org/" target="_blank" rel="noopener">FIRE</a>) revealed that most students would reject speakers with different views on some of the most important issues in our society. For instance, only 29% of students would allow a speaker who believes that transgender people have a mental disorder to speak on campus, and just 43% would accept an advocate for the abolition of abortion. In addition, only 37% of students believe it is never acceptable to stop a speaker, and 27% believe that violence may rarely, sometimes, or always be an acceptable response to prevent a talk on campus.
These statistics are shocking. A significant number of young people believe conservatives do not have the right to speak on campus — and some would even be willing to use force to prevent them from speaking. This mindset is a stark departure from the principles upheld by America&#8217;s Founding Fathers, who believed strongly in protecting free speech for even the most controversial opinions.
<h3>Why Free Speech Matters</h3>
The purpose of free speech is not to protect speech that pleases politicians, the government, or the majority. Free speech exists precisely to protect those who say controversial things or want to challenge power. As Thomas Jefferson <a href="https://oll.libertyfund.org/quotes/jefferson-s-preference-for-newspapers-without-government-over-government-without-newspapers-1787">pointed out</a> in 1787: “Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate a moment to prefer the latter.”
The danger of adopting the term “hate speech” is that it is completely subjective and can be used as a political weapon. Who defines what is hateful? The answer is clear: those in power. In Venezuela, the Maduro regime branded my views as hate speech — and I’m sure some American progressives would agree. This is exactly why the right to determine what is true or false, right or wrong, must belong to individuals, not politicians.
We often claim that politicians are corrupt liars who only care about their own self-interest. So, why would we give these people the power to decide what we can say? If we truly value free speech, we must resist censorship in all its forms — no matter who enforces it or what justification they use.
* * *
Franklin Camargo is a Venezuelan-born political activist who fled his homeland due to political persecution. Now a proud advocate for liberty, capitalism, and free speech, Franklin is a political science graduate from Liberty University, a former Univision host, co-author of After Socialism, Freedom, and a <a href="https://www.prageru.com/video/franklin-camargo-i-fled-venezuela-to-fight-for-america">PragerU personality.</a>
The views expressed in this piece are those of the author and do not necessarily represent those of the Daily Wire.

Sunset behind the illuminated Statue of Liberty in New York Harbor

I Fled Censorship In Venezuela. I Now See It Spreading In The West.

Censorship

Communism

Free Speech

Marxism

Propaganda

Socialism

President Donald Trump said this week that his administration is reversing President Joe Biden&#8217;s decision to ease sanctions against the government of Venezuelan socialist dictator Nicolás Maduro.
Trump posted on social media: &#8220;We are hereby reversing the concessions that Crooked Joe Biden gave to Nicolás Maduro, of Venezuela, on the oil transaction agreement, dated November 26, 2022, and also having to do with Electoral conditions within Venezuela, which have not been met by the Maduro regime.&#8221;
&#8220;Additionally, the regime has not been transporting the violent criminals that they sent into our Country (the Good Ole’ U.S.A.) back to Venezuela at the rapid pace that they had agreed to,&#8221; Trump continued in his post on Wednesday.
&#8220;I am therefore ordering that the ineffective and unmet Biden &#8216;Concession Agreement&#8217; be terminated as of the March 1st option to renew,&#8221; he concluded. &#8220;Thank you for your attention to this matter!&#8221;
The move appears to be a blow for the United States oil company Chevron, which was granted an exception in 2022 to pump in Venezuela.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said in a subsequent statement that in accordance with Trump&#8217;s directive, he is &#8220;providing foreign policy guidance to terminate all Biden-era oil and gas licenses that have shamefully bankrolled the illegitimate Maduro regime.&#8221;
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
Today, pursuant to <a href="https://twitter.com/POTUS?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">@POTUS</a> directive, I am providing foreign policy guidance to terminate all Biden-era oil and gas licenses that have shamefully bankrolled the illegitimate Maduro regime.
— Secretary Marco Rubio (@SecRubio) <a href="https://twitter.com/SecRubio/status/1894971586270380305?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw">February 27, 2025</a></blockquote>
The announcement comes after Trump special envoy Richard Grenell visited Venezuela last month and reportedly had secured commitments from their government to accept deportation flights from the United States.
“I would urge the Maduro government, the Maduro regime in Venezuela, to heed special envoy Ric Grenell’s message,” said Mauricio Claver-Carone, Trump’s special envoy to Latin America, at the time. “Ultimately there will be consequences otherwise.”
Related: <a href="https://www.dailywire.com/news/house-votes-to-ban-doing-business-with-socialist-maduros-venezuela-regime">House Votes To Ban Doing Business With Socialist Maduro’s Venezuela Regime</a>

Nicolas Maduro Delivers Annual Address To The Nation

Trump Turns Screws On Venezuela, Reversing Biden’s Soft Stance Toward The Dictatorship

Global Politics

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