A video that circulated widely on the internet recently showed a Haitian gang leader, Joseph Wilson, shirtless, happily showing off belts of .50 caliber ammunition, mockingly saying he used the armor-piercing bullets to groom his hair. “We have enough combs for our hair to last a year,” he joked. So how did he get them? … Read more
The crumbling apartments in Aurora, Colo., that President Trump seized on to insist the city had been overrun by Venezuelan street gangs are now boarded up and nearly empty. But in one building, the smashed door of Apartment 300 captures the fresh divisions sown by Mr. Trump’s immigration crackdown. On a recent spring morning, a … Read more
Lawyers for some of the Venezuelan immigrants deported last weekend under a rarely invoked wartime statute are pushing back against the Trump administration’s contention that they are members of a violent criminal street gang. In court papers filed late Wednesday night, the lawyers said that at least five of the immigrants who were flown without … Read more
In the days since the federal government sent hundreds of Venezuelan immigrants to a prison in El Salvador, Washington has been debating whether the White House did indeed defy a federal judge who ordered the deportation flights to turn around and head back to the United States. But beyond the Trump administration’s evident animus for … Read more
According to Ms. Casique, her son had no gang affiliation and had entered the United States to seek asylum in late 2023 after several years spent working in Peru to support his family back home. During his journey north, he had been injured in Mexico after a fall from a train, she said. Mr. García, … Read more
The Trump administration has sent hundreds of Venezuelans accused of being gang members to a prison in El Salvador, pushing the limits of U.S. immigration law seemingly after a federal judge ordered that the deportation flights not proceed. President Nayib Bukele of El Salvador posted a three-minute video on social media on Sunday of men … Read more
President Trump’s executive order on Saturday invoking the Alien Enemies Act targeted Venezuelan citizens 14 years and older with ties to the transnational gang Tren de Aragua, saying they “are liable to be apprehended, restrained, secured, and removed as Alien Enemies.” Mr. Trump’s order was quickly challenged in court, but the gang has been a … Read more
Two days before last Christmas, Dr. Pierre S. Prince took an exciting new job as director of Haiti’s largest public hospital, which the United States spent tens of millions of dollars renovating and is so deep in gang territory that it has been closed for a year. Dr. Prince, a 57-year-old thoracic surgeon, looked forward … Read more