CARACAS, Venezuela — Debates over President Donald Trump’s hardline migration policies are focused on the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, to some a ruthless transnational criminal organization and to others the pretext for an overhyped anti-migrant narrative.

Donald Trump has defended his decision to ignore judges and put more than 250 people on flights to El Salvador's 'hell-hole' prison. In a press briefing on Air Force One, the US president defended the invocation of the Alien Enemies Act's wartime powers to rapidly deport more than 200 alleged members of Tren de Aragua.

President Donald Trump thanked the country of El Salvador and its president, Nayib Bukele, for accepting members of the MS-13 and Tren de Aragua gangs, calling them “monsters” who were only in the country because of “Crooked Joe Biden and the Radical Left Democrats.