A senior Pentagon official stated that the U.S. military has executed a “successful counter-terrorism mission” in collaboration with El Salvador, although this seemed to pertain primarily to the deportation of suspected criminals. That day, the State Department announced that alleged members of the Venezuelan and MS-13 gangs were transported to El Salvador by the U.S. military on Sunday night.

The phrase “counter-terrorism” has long been employed by the Pentagon to categorize actions against militants in countries such as Iraq, Afghanistan, and Syria. However, the Pentagon did not clarify the nature of the specific “counter-terrorism” operation mentioned in its brief statement.

“The Department of Defense completed a successful counter-terrorism mission this weekend, in partnership with El Salvador,”

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s chief of staff, Joe Kasper, expressed in a statement.

The State Department issued a separate statement indicating that 17 individuals, identified as foreign criminals, were deported over the weekend. This group of suspected violent offenders linked to Tren de Aragua and MS-13 was transported by the U.S. military, as noted by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who mentioned that the deportees included murderers and rapists.

In January, Republican Trump assumed the presidency, pledging to deport millions of undocumented immigrants as part of a broad immigration enforcement strategy. Earlier this month, he invoked the Alien Enemies Act, an 18th-century law traditionally applied during wartime, to pursue suspected members of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua.

Is Tren de Aragua a threat to the US?

Recently, Trump cited the 18th Century Alien Enemies Act while alleging that Tren de Aragua was “perpetrating, attempting, and threatening an invasion of predatory incursion against the United States’ territory.”

He stated that the gang was involved in “irregular warfare” against the US under the direction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro. Soon after assuming office in January, Trump labeled Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organisation, categorizing the group alongside the Islamic State and Nigeria’s Islamist militants Boko Haram.

Recently, alleged members of Tren de Aragua have been arrested in Texas, Florida, New York, and Illinois, facing charges for various crimes, including murder and kidnapping. A significant case involved two suspects who were apprehended for assaulting a police officer in Times Square, with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) indicating that they were likely affiliated with the gang.

What are the terrorism charges against MS-13?

During a White House press conference on July 15, 2020, Attorney General William Barr revealed that the Department of Justice had lodged terrorism charges against Armando Eliu Melgar Diaz, a Honduran citizen who shifted from the United States back to his home nation in 2016. The announcement was the first time that the DOJ had employed terrorism charges against MS-13, according to a Washington Post story.