In March 2025, the Trump administration used the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to justify mass deportations of over 200 Venezuelan nationals, accusing them of ties to the Tren de Aragua gang. Shockingly, the primary “evidence” used to label these individuals as gang-affiliated was simply the fact that they had tattoos—any tattoos, most of which were entirely unrelated to gang activity. Ignoring a federal judge’s emergency order to halt the deportations, the administration sent the group to El Salvador’s notorious Terrorism Confinement Center. Many deportees had no criminal records, raising serious concerns about due process, abuse of executive power, and the dangerous conflation of ordinary body art with criminal behavior.
