President Donald Trump has essentially declared war against several foreign drug cartels and street gangs that operate criminally in the United States, and even went so far as to invoke the rarely used Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to hasten the apprehension and deportation of identified members of such groups.

On Thursday, federal agents working with Florida law enforcement made what is reported to be the first arrest on U.S. soil of an illegal alien gang member under the authority of the invoked Act, according to the New York Post.

Franklin Jose Jimenez-Bracho, a "known Tren de Aragua gang member" in the U.S. illegally from Venezuela, was apprehended in Orlando by Homeland Security agents alongside various Florida police agencies.

Venezuelan gang member and human trafficker arrested

In an X post on Thursday, GOP Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis announced that the "[Florida Department of Law Enforcement] and Florida Highway Patrol Troopers, in participation with Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) Homeland Security Task Force Orlando, today arrested a known Tren de Aragua gang member -- the first arrest conducted in the nation under the Alien Enemies Act according to HSI."

"This individual is wanted as a human trafficker and smuggler. Once again, Florida leads the way," the governor added.

On Friday, according to Fox News, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement Director Todd Lyons held a news conference in Florida to announce the arrest of Bracho under the Alien Enemies Act and stated, "Tren de Aragua is a dangerous foreign terrorist organization that has invaded our soil. TdA has infiltrated the U.S., its northern border, the southern border, and in our waterways."

"Many of these members are cold-blooded killers, rapists, thieves, drug traffickers, weapons traffickers and human traffickers," he continued. "They're accused of the most heinous crimes committed inside our neighborhoods and communities. They have been running loose in the United States."

"I'm proud to say, in the past 48 hours, ICE, along with our local partners and our other fellow federal agencies, have arrested more than 68 gang members, terrorists in the United States," Lyons added. "To date, we've arrested 394 of these terrorists. Our goal is to eradicate TdA from U.S. soil. We will not tolerate their illegal presence or the threat they pose to the American public."

Taking down Venezuela's Tren de Aragua gang

On President Trump's first day in office, he signed an executive order that designated several Mexican drug cartels and other transnational criminal organizations, including Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, as either Foreign Terrorist Organizations or Specially Designated Global Terrorists.

The purpose of that order was to "ensure the total elimination of these organizations’ presence in the United States and their ability to threaten the territory, safety, and security of the United States through their extraterritorial command-and-control structures, thereby protecting the American people and the territorial integrity of the United States."

Nearly two months later, in mid-March, Trump upped the ante with a separate order that specifically invoked the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 against Tren de Aragua, which made members of that organization "subject to immediate apprehension, detention, and removal, and further that they shall not be permitted residence in the United States."

The Alien Enemies Act

The Alien Enemies Act, codified as 50 U.S.C. § 21, which has only been invoked thrice before during major declared wars, grants the president special authorities to apprehend, detain, and deport without hearings any unnaturalized "natives, citizens, denizens, or subjects" of a declared hostile government, nation, or organization and over the age of 14 without a hearing or due process.

President Trump's invocation of that Act has, of course, been highly controversial among Democrats and the media, and an overtly biased judge has even attempted to block the administration's use of the centuries-old law to quickly arrest and remove known criminal aliens, per the Post.

The administration, however, which has already deported hundreds of previously detained criminal illegal alien gang members under the Act's authority, has been insistent that its actions are justified and necessary and fully authorized by the law.