By Nicole Silverio, Daily Caller News Foundation | March 31, 2025
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt got into a near shouting match with a reporter Monday over President Donald Trump’s administration’s process for identifying members of foreign criminal gangs.
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) published a document called “The Alien Enemies Validation Guide,” which they believe is used by the Trump administration to identify members of Tren de Agua, a violent Venezuelan criminal gang. While The Independent White House correspondent Andrew Feinberg suggested that individuals displaying certain body art is enough for them to be classified as a Tren de Agua member, Leavitt accused the “mainstream media” of attempting to “cover” for these violent criminals.
“You can get classified by simply having certain symbols in your tattoos and wearing certain streetwear brands. That alone is enough to get someone classified as TdA and get them sent to El Salvador,” Feinberg said, which Leavitt denied. “According to this document it is [true].”
“No, according to the Department of Homeland Security and the agents, have you talked to the agents who have been putting their lives on the line to detain these foreign terrorists who have been terrorizing our communities? TdA is a vicious gang who have taken the lives of American women,” Leavitt said. “And our agents on the frontlines take deporting these people with the upmost seriousness and there is a litany of criteria that they use to make sure that these individuals qualify as foreign terrorists and to ensure that they qualify for deportation … Shame on you and shame on the mainstream media for trying to cover for these individuals. This is a vicious gang, Andrew. This is a vicious gang that has taken the lives of American women.”
The document requires an individual to receive at least 8 points to be classified as a Tren de Agua member, and includes several ways in which the person can qualify as a member of the terrorist organization. A person can be identified as a Tren de Agua member if court records identifies them as a subject of the organization, if the person self-identifies or has displayed “insignia, logos, notations, drawings or dress known to indicate allegiance” to Tren de Agua, according to the document.
Law enforcement officials have identified distinctive tattoos, such as stars, trains, and text reading “Real Hasta la Muerte”, meaning “‘Till death”, and “Hijos de Dios”, or “Sons of God” on the chest and arms.
Following his spat with Leavitt, Feinberg said in an X statement that while members of Tren de Agua should be deported, body art and clothing alone should not qualify them for deportation.
“Obviously TdA is bad and if someone is a TdA member and deportable they should be deported but one would hope our government with all it’s resources can do more to figure out who’s who go entirely off wardrobe and body art if the result is being sent to a foreign supermax prison,” Feinberg said.
The Trump administration invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to deport over 200 members of Tren de Agua to El Salvador and Honduras without the requirement of appearing before an immigration judge. U.S. District Judge James Boasberg, an Obama-era appointee, blocked Trump’s deportations of the criminal gang members in a March 15 ruling after the flights were already in mid-air, leading to a legal battle on whether the deportations were legally carried out.
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Monday that the U.S. transferred a group of 17 violent criminals from Tren de Agua and MS-13 to El Salvador in a “successful counter-terrorism operation” on Sunday night. U.S. authorities also captured a top leader of MS-13 early Thursday in Woodbridge, Virginia, located right outside of Washington, D.C.
Trump designated both Tren de Agua, MS-13 and drug cartels as foreign terrorist organizations in an executive order signed on Jan. 20.
Nicole Silverio is a media reporter at the Daily Caller News Foundation.
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