Operation Aurora

Tren de Aragua in Aurora, Colorado

Operation Aurora is a plan made by president of the United States Donald Trump to use the police and the military to deport millions of illegal immigrants from the United States. The plan had been talked about before Trump won the 2024 United States presidential election. It is named after a reported crime by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in Aurora, Colorado. The event in Aurora made President Trump make the deportation of many illegal immigrants an important part of his presidency.

History

Background

Alien and Sedition Acts

The Alien and Sedition Acts were made law by the United States Congress in 1798 in the Quasi-War. This made it legal to catch and deport people who were not American in war times.

The law was used to deport people:

Chinese Exclusion Act

Many Chinese people entered the United States to run away from the Punti-Hakka Clan Wars that killed almost one million people. Chinese immigrants were the biggest group of workers who finished the Transcontinental Railroad and were liked by railway companies. White Americans began to not like Chinese people and thought that they were stealing jobs. These bad feelings at Chinese people caused the Los Angeles Chinese massacre. This was the biggest lynching in the history of the United States and ten percent of the Chinese population in Los Angeles were killed at that time. The United States Congress signed the Chinese Exclustion Act that stopped Chinese people from entering the United States. This was the first big law to prevent immigration into the United States. The law stopped Chinese people from entering until it ended in 1943. The Chinese Exclusion Act made a plan for future immigration laws in the United States that used race.

Operation Wetback

Operation Wetback was a plan made in May 1954 by United States to deport Mexicans who had illegally entered the United States. Many Mexicans moved to the United States because they did not have food. There was no food in Mexico because it was being sold to other nations. Two million people were deported from the United States during Operation Wetback.

Immigration problems

Presidency of Donald Trump

President Donald Trump looking at a new border wall

In August 2015, during the 2016 United States presidential election, Trump said he had a plan to deport many illegal immigrants. Trump said he wanted to make a "Deportation Force" to catch and deport people. He said his plan was like Operation Wetback.

Donald Trump signed Executive Order 13769 a few days after he became president. The order stopped people from seven Muslim countries from going to the United States. The Trump wall was also built to make the United States-Mexico border wall bigger. The United States built hundreds of miles of new walls along the border during the presidency of Trump.

Project 2025

Many parts of the operation are from Project 2025 of the Heritage Foundation. Stephen Miller was someone who wrote part of Project 2025. Miller said deporting millions of people is as important as building the Panama Canal. He said that National Guard troops in U.S. states that have Republican governors would be sent to the Democratic states to make sure deportations happened. Miller said camps would be made for caught illegal immigrants until they are deported. Project 2025 also said that police can catch illegal immigrants anywhere in the United States without an arrest warrant.

Tren de Aragua

Map of Tren de Aragua in the United States:
     Confirmed
     Reported

A large gang named Tren de Aragua from Venezuela is leaving and going to other nations. The Trump government made economic sanctions against Venezuela during its economic crisis. The US government used sanctions because it wanted to make the government of Nicolás Maduro to leave during the Venezuelan presidential crisis. The Trump government said that sanctions make the Venezuelan economy bad and make Venezuelans leave their nation. The sanctions by the United States did make the economy in Venezuela bad and made many people leave the country. Tren de Aragua used the large groups of Venezuelans leaving their nation to make their gang bigger.

The gang was talked about a lot in the mass media in the United States. Two crimes by people in the gang were seen by many in the United States. The two crimes were the murder of Laken Riley and the murder of Jocelyn Nungaray. A viral video was shared in August 2024 of people from Tren de Aragua walking with guns around an apartment in Aurora, Colorado.

The event in Aurora made President Trump make the deportation of many illegal immigrants an important part of his presidency. Trump used the video from Aurora in his presidential campaign to talk about his plans on deportations.

Plan of operation

Stephen Miller, who helped plan Project 2025 and Operation Aurora

On October 11, 2024, Donald Trump said a plan named "Operation Aurora" would be made to deport millions of illegal immigrants. Trump said agents would "hunt, arrest and deport all members of illegal immigrant gangs." He said he would make people who illegally return to the United States stay 10 years in prison.

The people leading Operation Aurora will be Stephen Miller and Tom Homan. Homan was the leader of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.

Some of the plans of Operation Aurora are from Operation Wetback. Operation Aurora also has some of the same ideas as Project 2025.

The Trump government plans to allow illegal immigrants in schools, hospitals and churches to be arrested. Trump says that he thinks illegal immigrants are invading the country. Trumps says that the military can catch illegal immigrants because of this invasion.

Some have said that illegal immigrants who kill a US citizen need the death penalty.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Aurora, Louise Callaghan (2025-01-25). "'They were on the stairs with guns': block that inspired Trump deportations". The Times. Retrieved 2025-01-27.
  2. ↑ "74292-005-001 – Alien Enemies Documents (War of 1812), 1812–1815". MS Digital Archives. Retrieved 2022-07-15.
  3. ↑ Semiannual Report of the War Relocation Authority, for the period January 1 to June 30, 1946, not dated. Papers of Dillon S. Myer. Scanned image at Archived 16 June 2018 at the Wayback Machine trumanlibrary.org. Retrieved September 18, 2006.
  4. 1 2 "The War Relocation Authority and the Incarceration of Japanese Americans During World War II: 1948 Chronology", Web page Archived 2015-11-05 at the Wayback Machine at www.trumanlibrary.org. Retrieved September 11, 2006.
  5. ↑ Chang, Gordon H; Fishkin, Shelley Fisher (2019). The Chinese and the iron road: Building the transcontinental railroad. Stanford, CA: Stanford University Press. ISBN 978-1503608290.
  6. ↑ Chang, Gordon H (2019). Ghosts of Gold Mountain: The epic story of the Chinese who built the transcontinental railroad. Boston: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. ISBN 978-1328618573.
  7. ↑ Minahan, James B. (10 February 2014). "Hakka". Ethnic Groups of North, East, and Central Asia: An Encyclopedia. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO. p. 89. ISBN 978-1610690188.
  8. ↑ Kraus, George (1969). "Chinese Laborers and the Construction of the Central Pacific" (PDF). Utah Historical Quarterly. 37 (1): 41–57. doi:10.2307/45058853. JSTOR 45058853. S2CID 254449682. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2022-10-09.
  9. 1 2 3 4 Rosalsky, Greg (26 November 2024). "The price America paid for its first big immigration crackdown". NPR.
  10. ↑ Johnson, John (March 10, 2011). "How Los Angeles Covered Up the Massacre of 17 Chinese". LA Weekly. Archived from the original on September 2, 2020. Retrieved August 1, 2016.
  11. ↑ Erika Lee, "Review of The Chinatown War: Chinese Los Angeles and the Massacre of 1871 (2012), by Scott Zesch", Journal of American History, vol. 100, no. 1 (June 2013), p. 217.
  12. ↑ "Chinese Exclusion Act". Encyclopædia Britannica. 21 July 2023.
  13. ↑ Ow, Jeffrey A. (October 2009). "Immigration at the Golden Gate: Passenger Ships, Exclusion, and Angel Island". Journal of American Ethnic History. 29 (1): 72–73. doi:10.2307/40543565. JSTOR 40543565. S2CID 254489490.
  14. ↑ Hernandez 2006, p. 421-444.
  15. 1 2 Hernandez 2006, pp. 426–28.
  16. ↑ "Table 39. Aliens Removed or Returned: Fiscal Years 1892 to 2015". Office of Homeland Security Statistics. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  17. ↑ Nick Gass, "Trump's immigration plan: Mass deportation" Archived February 11, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Politico (August 17, 2015).
  18. ↑ Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, "Messy legal process could challenge Trump's mass deportation plan", Fox News (November 27, 2015).
  19. ↑ Kate Linthicum, "The dark, complex history of Trump's model for his mass deportation plan" Archived January 25, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Los Angeles Times (November 13, 2015).
  20. 1 2 Kelley Beaucar Vlahos, "Messy legal process could challenge Trump's mass deportation plan", Fox News (November 27, 2015).
  21. 1 2 Kate Linthicum, "The dark, complex history of Trump's model for his mass deportation plan" Archived January 25, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, Los Angeles Times (November 13, 2015).
  22. 1 2 Jim Avila & Serena Marshall, "Donald Trump Models 'Deportation Force' After Inhumane Eisenhower Plan, Scholar Says" Archived March 12, 2017, at the Wayback Machine, ABC News (November 11, 2015).
  23. 1 2 "Donald Trump firma una orden ejecutiva que suspende la entrada a EE.UU. de refugiados y de los ciudadanos de ciertos países musulmanes". BBC News Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  24. ↑ "Trump wall - all you need to know about US border in seven charts - BBC News". 2019-05-15. Archived from the original on 2019-05-15. Retrieved 2025-01-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  25. ↑ Alvarez, Priscilla (2021-01-21). "Defense Department slams brakes on border wall as it reviews Biden order | CNN Politics". CNN. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  26. 1 2 Haught, J. Staas. "What Operation Aurora, Alien Enemies Act could mean for New Jersey voters". North Jersey Media Group. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  27. ↑ Gentry, Dana (2024-11-15). "Nevada unprepared for Trump's mass deportations • Nevada Current". Nevada Current. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  28. ↑ "Trump allies pre-screen loyalists for unprecedented power grab". Axios. 2023-11-13. Archived from the original on 2023-11-13. Retrieved 2025-01-10.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: bot: original URL status unknown (link)
  29. 1 2 3 Brownstein, Ronald (February 8, 2024). "Trump's 'Knock on the Door'". The Atlantic. Archived from the original on February 10, 2024. Retrieved February 11, 2024.
  30. ↑ Pilkington, Ed (2024-05-03). "Mass deportations, detention camps, troops on the street: Trump spells out migrant plan". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  31. ↑ Gallegos, Andrés (2023-09-04). "Tren de Aragua: ¿cómo opera esta banda de crimen organizado y cuál es su presencia en Perú? | RPP Noticias". rpp.pe (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  32. 1 2 Galbraith, Jean (July 2019). "United States Recognizes the Opposition Government in Venezuela and Imposes Sanctions as Tensions Escalate". American Journal of International Law. 113 (3): 601, 608. doi:10.1017/ajil.2019.41. In a campaign designed to oust Maduro from power, the United States has encouraged foreign governments and intergovernmental organizations to recognize Guaidó and has imposed a series of targeted economic sanctions to weaken Maduro's regime. ... the Trump administration has consistently exempted humanitarian assistance and insisted that the sanctions 'do not target the innocent people of Venezuela. Despite this assertion, Venezuela's economic situation has worsened severely under the prolonged sanctions, and the humanitarian crisis remains devastating.
  33. ↑ Stein, Jeff (26 July 2024). "Trump White House was warned sanctions on Venezuela could fuel migration". The Washington Post.
  34. ↑ Oliveros, Luis (2020). "Impacto de los sanciones financieras y petroleras sobre la economia venezolana" (PDF). Washington Office on Latin America.
  35. ↑ "Sanctions and Severance: The Venezuelan Crisis During the Russo-Ukrainian War". Harvard International Review. 2023-02-22. Retrieved 2025-01-10.[permanent dead link]
  36. ↑ Rodríguez, Francisco (2025-01-09). "To Halt the Venezuelan Migration Crisis, Stop Banning Venezuelan Oil". Foreign Policy. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  37. ↑ "Cómo el temido Tren de Aragua logró expandir sus tentáculos por América Latina desde una "lujosa" cárcel de Venezuela". BBC News Mundo (in Spanish). Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  38. ↑ McHugh, Rich (29 November 2024). "2 Tren de Aragua members tied to viral Aurora video arrested in NYC". NewsNation.
  39. ↑ "Grand jury indicts Laken Riley murder suspect on 10 counts". ABC News. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  40. ↑ "2 men accused of strangling 12-year-old in Houston are charged with capital murder". NBC News. 2024-06-22. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  41. ↑ "2 Tren de Aragua members tied to viral Aurora video arrested in NYC". NewsNation. 2024-11-29. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  42. ↑ Mason, Tori (2024-08-30). "Venezuelan gang activity confirmed by Aurora officials after release of Colorado woman's surveillance video - CBS Colorado". CBS News. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  43. ↑ Birkeland, Bente (11 October 2024). "Trump rallies in Aurora — a city he has demonized as overrun by migrant crime". NPR.
  44. 1 2 3 "'Operation Aurora': Trump promises nationwide deportation effort during Colorado rally". Denver 7 Colorado News (KMGH). 2024-10-11. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  45. 1 2 Gentry, Dana (2024-11-15). "Nevada unprepared for Trump's mass deportations • Nevada Current". Nevada Current. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  46. ↑ Reporter, Dan Gooding Politics (2024-11-13). "'Operation Wetback': What happened last time the US did mass deportations". Newsweek. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  47. ↑ Farmer, Brit McCandless (2024-10-27). "The blueprint of Trump's deportation plan: A questionable approach by Eisenhower - CBS News". www.cbsnews.com. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  48. ↑ Leal, Nicholas Dale (2024-11-27). "Immigration battle between Trump team and Democratic strongholds heats up". EL PAÍS English. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  49. 1 2 Becket, Stefan (2024-12-12). "11 highlights from Trump's Time Person of the Year interview - CBS News". CBS News. Retrieved 2025-01-10.
  50. ↑ "'Operation Aurora': Trump promises nationwide deportation effort during Colorado rally". Denver 7 Colorado News (KMGH). 2024-10-11. Retrieved 2025-01-10.