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When the Founding Fathers drafted the Aliens Act of 1798, they intended it to act as an antibody against foreign armies, criminal networks, and individuals who sought to do America harm. They understood something we have forgotten. Every nation has not just a right to act in self-defense, but a duty to do so. When a nation neglects that duty, it risks becoming a haven for vile criminal elements from across the globe, and a battleground in other nation’s conflicts. No nation is obligated to harbor foreign criminals from justice in their home nations, much less allow them to continue their crime spree right here in the United States.Until President Donald Trump invoked the Alien Enemies Act, that was what the United States was doing. Harboring criminals like Adrian Rafael Gamez Finol, Miguel Oyola Jimenez, and Edgar Javier Benitez Rubio, the three members of Tren de Aragua charged with kidnapping, torturing, and murdering Ronald Ojeda in Chile. Ojeda was a genuine political refugee, a lieutenant in the Venezuelan army, who protested the criminal tyranny of Nicolás Maduro’s dictatorship and dreamed of one day returning home.That day would never come. Rather than facing justice for those crimes, Ojeda’s three murderers currently reside in the United States, making a mockery of an asylum process designed for men like Ronald Ojeda.TRUMP DHS SLAMS MORE ‘SOB STORY’ REPORTING AFTER TREN DE ARAGUA GANG MEMBERS SEND SOS SIGNALThanks to President Trump’s invocation of the Alien Enemies Act, Ojeda’s family may finally receive justice in Chile, and these murderers will no longer threaten the American people in their midst.Ojeda’s murderers and their fellow members of Tren de Aragua are exactly who the Founding Fathers had in mind when they passed the Alien Enemies Act in 1798. They are not merely murderers, but members of a hostile Foreign Terrorist Organization that has committed “a predatory incursion” into the territory of the United States and engaged in “crime against the public safety,” while in league with a foreign government.By deporting TdA members under the Alien Enemies Act, the United States government is not making judgments about the contributions of individual TdA members but rather deferring to the organization itself. The evidence is clear. TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, the Maduro regime’s-sponsored narco-terrorism enterprise based in Venezuela and was closely aligned with Tareck El Aissami, the Venezuelan regime’s former Vice President. Whether TdA exclusively murders, smuggles drugs, and traffics illegal immigrants over our borders on the orders of Venezuelan leaders, or freelances for self-enrichment is beside the point. It has killed on behalf of a hostile foreign government, that government has fostered its growth, and that government has encouraged it to invade the United States to advance its interests.FEDERAL JUDGE OPENS DOOR TO ALIEN ENEMIES ACT TARGETS SUING TRUMP ADMINISTRATIONCritics argue that the Aliens Act is unnecessary and unjust and that it is possible to deport criminals individually. That Adrian Rafael Gamez Finol, Miguel Oyola Jimenez, and Edgar Javier Benitez Rubio remain in the country reflect poorly on such arguments. Still, those making them also fail to understand how organized crime works. While liberal law professors may quibble over whether every member of Tren de Aragua is guilty of every act, that is like pointing out that the mafia included getaway drivers and accomplices who did not take part in breaking the legs of extortion victims but merely drove other mafia members around and handled the paperwork afterward. TdA does not allow people to join for fun because they want neat tattoos or as a form of welfare. It allows entry only to those who can contribute to its criminal campaign against the United States. By deporting TdA members under the Alien Enemies Act, the United States government is not making judgments about the contributions of individual TdA members but rather deferring to the organization itself.RUBIO PASSIONATELY DEFENDS IMMIGRATION ACTIONS TO WEED OUT ‘PERVERTS AND PEDOPHILES AND CHILD RAPISTS’The Alien Enemies Act was passed precisely because our Founding Fathers understood that the president would need to be able to take decisive action in response to threats from hostile foreign actors. In the 1790s, French revolutionary politicians raised criminal gangs in their struggles for power in Paris, many of which then relocated to America, where they supplemented their efforts to murder one another, and criminality for self-enrichment. The United States government recognized the impossibility of differentiating between subgroups, which represented ever-shifting factions in Paris, and decided the question was ultimately unimportant. Every one of these individuals was a de facto member of a private army, and members of foreign private armies had no business operating on American soil.CLICK HERE FOR MORE FOX NEWS OPINIONThat is also why the exact nature of the connections between organizations such as Tren de Aragua and foreign governments is irrelevant. Some critics, thinking they are clever, will argue that one of Tren de Aragua’s key patrons, the Venezuelan regime’s former Vice President Tareck El Aissami, was arrested and charged with treason in 2023. The private army of a foreign warlord does not cease to be a foreign army just because that warlord loses a battle. The assassination of Mexican politicians by drug cartels is precisely how those cartels exercise control of Mexican politics, not evidence against their political ambitions.CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APPThe Alien Enemies Act was designed to ensure that the politics of foreign nations would not spread to our shores. Whether they are currently winning or losing, Tren de Aragua is waging a terrorist campaign of murder across our hemisphere in the service of the Venezuelan regime, and we have the duty to expel anyone involved from our nation consistent with all other applicable laws.As Secretary of State, I will continue to use every power at my disposal to protect the American people and defend our nation from foreign invasion. The Founding Fathers recognized the threat posed by foreign terrorist armies invading this nation and wisely provided the president with the power to defend America through the Alien Enemies Act. As long as it exists, I will use it to the fullest. CLICK HERE TO READ MORE FROM SECRETARY MARCO RUBIO
SEC MARCO RUBIO: Alien Enemies Act designed to protect against Tren de Aragua, others
