LILIA LUCIANO: The Trump administration says the men deported were all members of a criminal gang called Tren de Aragua, known as TdA. But we reported last week on a similar case where a Venezuelan migrant with no known criminal record also landed in the CECOT prison. We came to The White House to talk to the border czar Tom Homan to better understand why the government says that these men are all terrorists.
TOM HOMAN: I’ve been told by the highest levels of ICE, the men and women of ICE, Immigration and Customs Enforcement, who built that manifest, who went into these files, spent hundreds and hundreds of hours investigating each and each and every one of these people, that they are in fact -everyone of them- a member of TdA.
LUCIANO: How do you know they are all members? Have you seen that evidence?
HOMAN: I have not delved on every file. Again, I’m trusting the men and women who do this for a living.
LUCIANO: Is it possible that the administration made a mistake by sending 238 men, saying that they are TdA members? Ensuring they are all TdA members without seeing what the evidence is?
HOMAN: I'm not worried- I’m not worried about mistakes at all. But I can tell you this. Not every gang member has a criminal record…