A newly surfaced intelligence memo has blown a hole in Donald Trump’s primary justification for his controversial deportation of Venezuelan immigrants. According to a report cited by The New York Times, U.S. intelligence agencies have concluded that Venezuela’s government is not directing or coordinating with the Tren de Aragua (TDA) gang, undermining Trump’s claims used to invoke the wartime Alien Enemies Act of 1798 in March.
“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 memo from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence (ODNI) stated.
This revelation directly contradicts Trump’s justification for extrajudicial deportations of Venezuelans to a prison in El Salvador, which he claimed were necessary due to a criminal invasion supposedly orchestrated by Nicolás Maduro’s regime. Trump had previously declared, “Other nations emptied their jails into the United States… These are criminals, many many criminals… murderers, drug dealers at the highest level.”
But the ODNI’s assessment makes clear: Trump’s claims have no grounding in verified intelligence. The findings further suggest that his actions—bypassing due process to carry out mass deportations—may have little legal justification and are likely to be challenged as an overreach of executive authority.
