Rubio’s warning follows the Trump’s designation of Tren de Aragua gang members as ‘alien enemies,’ enabling their expedited deportation for national security.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio has warned Venezuela that it will face harsh new sanctions if it refuses to accept deportation flights carrying Venezuelan nationals, including members of the Tren de Aragua gang, which the Trump administration has targeted for quick removal from the United States.
“Venezuela is obligated to accept its repatriated citizens from the U.S. This is not an issue for debate or negotiation,” Rubio said in a March 18
post on social media. “Unless the Maduro regime accepts a consistent flow of deportation flights, without further excuses or delays, the U.S. will impose new, severe, and escalating sanctions.”
The Venezuelan communications ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. However, President Nicolas Maduro’s government has consistently rejected U.S. sanctions, calling them illegitimate measures that constitute an “economic war” aimed at crippling Venezuela.
Rubio’s warning comes as the administration pushes forward with the deportation of Venezuelan nationals who are members of Tren de Aragua, a transnational criminal organization. The gang has been
designated a foreign terrorist organization, and President Donald Trump recently accused the Maduro regime of using its members as operatives to conduct “hostile actions” inside the United States.
Trump’s
proclamation, invoking a rarely used 18th-century law, classifies Tren de Aragua members as “alien enemies,” allowing for their swift arrest and deportation. The proclamation argues that the gang is engaged in an “invasion or predatory incursion” into U.S. territory and accuses Maduro of links to the gang through the regime-sponsored narco-terrorist enterprise, Cartel de los Soles.
“The result is a hybrid criminal state that is perpetrating an invasion of and predatory incursion into the United States, and which poses a substantial danger to the United States,” Trump wrote, claiming the Maduro regime is deliberately sending Tren de Aragua gangsters to enter the United States illegally and destabilize the country.
According to written testimony from Robert Cerna, an acting field office director with ICE’s Enforcement and Removal Operations division, approximately 54 Tren de Aragua members are currently in Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) detention. Another 172 are on the agency’s non-detained docket, and about 32 are in criminal custody with ICE detainers lodged against them.
Individuals on ICE’s non-detained docket are undocumented migrants living in the United States who are subject to deportation but not currently in ICE custody. Some may be incarcerated at the local or state level, enrolled in ICE’s Alternatives-to-Detention program, or living freely in the community.
Cerna’s testimony, delivered Monday, addresses the administration’s efforts to expedite the deportation of Tren de Aragua members, efforts that have been challenged in federal court.
Hours after Trump issued the proclamation fast-tracking the removal of Tren de Aragua gang members, a federal judge temporarily blocked the order. Chief Judge James Boasberg of the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia provisionally certified a class of all noncitizens affected by Trump’s proclamation and issued a temporary restraining order preventing their removal for at least 14 days.
Despite the ruling, the Trump administration has continued with the deportations, arguing that the judiciary lacks authority over the president’s conduct of foreign affairs.
“The Administration did not ‘refuse to comply’ with a court order,” White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said in a
statement. “A single judge in a single city cannot direct the movements of an aircraft ... full of foreign alien terrorists who were physically expelled from U.S. soil.”
Attorney General Pam Bondi echoed this stance, asserting on March 17 that the United States would “absolutely” continue the deportation flights despite the judge’s order, which she described as judicial overreach.
Bondi said that Trump’s proclamation designates the Tren de Aragua members as “alien enemies” that allow for their expedited removal as a matter of national security.
“These are foreign terrorists ... the president has identified them, and designated them as such, and we will continue to follow the Alien Enemies Act,” Bondi said, referencing the 1798 law that Trump invoked to allow for their expedited removal.
The Trump administration is now seeking to have the case reassigned to a different judge, citing concerns about potential conflicts of interest or bias in Judge Boasberg’s handling of the case.
Meanwhile, amid tensions between the United States and Venezuela, the Justice Department has taken further action against the Maduro regime.
The Justice Department
filed a civil forfeiture complaint on March 18 in the Southern District of Florida against a Dassault Falcon 900 EX aircraft, which was allegedly smuggled out of the United States and operated on behalf of Maduro in violation of U.S. sanctions and export control laws.
Reuters contributed to this report.
