President Donald Trump speaks on his first 100 days at Macomb County Community College Sports Expo Center, Tuesday, April 29, 2025, in Warren, Mich. (AP Photo/Alex Brandon)
The administration further categorized TdA as an invading force under the 18th-century Alien Enemies Act as federal authorities ramp up efforts to deport its members.
Tens of thousands of Haitians came to the U.S. under a Biden-era program permitting people from four countries, including Haiti, to stay for two years provided they had a financial sponsor and bought their own plane ticket. The Trump administration terminated that program and is seeking to revoke the status of those admitted under the Biden administration.
Migration from Haiti was under scrutiny in 2024 as the Trump campaign drew attention to massive amounts of Haitian migration under the parole processes for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans (CHNV), when 30,000 migrants were allowed in each month. At that point, if eligible, they could not be removed after their parole expired due to TPS. It affected a number of towns, including Springfield, Ohio, and Charleroi, Pennsylvania.
At a Michigan rally Tuesday celebrating his 100th day back in office, Trump championed the eight designations from last month, vowing his White House would continue deportations.
"We have also designated two bloodthirsty transnational gangs, MS-13 and Tren de Agua, TdA. They've been designated the highest level of terrorist and that lets us do a lot of things that you wouldn't be able to do," Trump said. "We’ve got to get them out of here before they kill more people. They've killed plenty. My administration has increased arrests of known and suspected terrorists by 655%. Is that okay? We tried to get it higher. We tried to get it higher. But the courts are giving us a hard time."
A police officer patrols an intersection in the Petion-Ville neighborhood of Port-au-Prince, Haiti, Thursday, April 24, 2025. (AP Photo/Odelyn Joseph)
Gran Grif was also blamed for a recent attack in the Petite Riviere community in which several people were killed, including an 11-year-old child.
Gran Grif was formed after Prophane Victor, an ex-member of Haiti’s Parliament who represented the Petite Riviere community in Artibonite, began arming young men in the region, according to a U.N. report. Victor was arrested in January.
Canada sanctioned him in June 2023, as did the U.S. in September 2024, accusing him of supporting gangs "that have committed serious human rights abuse."
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More than 5,600 people were killed across Haiti last year, with gang violence leaving more than 1 million homeless in the country of nearly 12 million people, according to the U.N.
Fox News' Adam Shaw and the Associated Press contributed to this report.
Danielle Wallace is a breaking news and politics reporter at Fox News Digital. Story tips can be sent to danielle.wallace@fox.com and on X: @danimwallace.
https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-name-haitian-gangs-foreign-terrorist-organizations-report