Trump administration planning to extradite 3 alleged Tren de Aragua members to Chile

The Trump administration is planning to extradite three alleged Tren de Aragua (TdA) members to Chile, the Department of Justice (DOJ) announced Monday.

The Venezuelan gang has been a focus of the Trump administration. On March 15, President Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, a wartime act that’s only been used three times since its 1798 passing, to deport more than 200 alleged gang members.

The department said three known TdA members named Adrian Rafael Gamez Finol, Miguel Oyola Jimenez and Edgar Javier Benitez Rubio “illegally entered the United States after allegedy committing horrific crimes in Chile.” The DOJ declared all three to be “Alien Enemies.”

“Recognizing the grave threat that TdA poses to the nations it infiltrates, Chile has asked the United States to help return these men to Chile to face justice,” the department said. “Today, the Department of Justice announced that it will take swift action to grant these requests and send these Alien Enemies to Chile.”

The DOJ said the men are wanted in Chile for extortion, kidnapping resulting in homicide, unjustified firearm discharge, kidnapping for ransom, among other charges.

Oyola Jimenez is in federal custody in the Western District of Washington, the department said. Benitez Rubio is in immigration custody in Indiana, and Gamez Finol is in a Texas county prison, serving a human smuggling sentence.

The extradition comes as U.S. District Judge James Boasberg and the Trump administration battle over the March 15 deportation of roughly 260 alleged members of the gang.

On Monday, Boasberg declined to lift a restraining order that banned the administration from using the Alien Enemies Act to deport Venezuelans.

Deputy Attorney General Todd Blanche said in a statement that the extraditions of the three men already would have already been carried out had it not been for Boasberg. 

“The Justice Department is taking every step within the bounds of the law to ensure these individuals are promptly sent to Chile to face justice for their abhorrent crimes,” Blanche’s statement said. “In fact, we would have already removed these violent gang members to Chile to face justice were it not for the nationwide injunction imposed by a single judge in Washington D.C., which we are challenging today in the D.C. Circuit.”

—Updated at 3:48 p.m. EDT