HOUSTON, United States

The US National Intelligence Council (NIC) determined through a secret assessment that the Venezuelan government is not directing an invasion of the United States by the Tren de Aragua prison gang, a determination that refutes President Donald Trump's justification as to why his administration is carrying out mass deportations of Venezuelans, according to a report released Thursday by The Washington Post.

The NIC used information from 18 US intelligence agencies to determine its assessment, which contradicts Trump's public statements about Venezuela and his administration's reasoning for carrying out the mass deportations.

The president has been using his interpretation of the 1798 Alien Enemies Act (AEA) to deport suspected gang members without giving them due process in a court of law to argue their innocence. The AEA was last used during World War II and laid the foundation for the incarceration of more than 110,000 Japanese Americans in internment camps.

Trump invoked his use of the AEA in mid-March, claiming without evidence that Tren de Aragua was conducting an "invasion" of the US "at the direction" of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro's government. That led to the Justice Department sending planeloads of alleged gang members to a maximum security prison in El Salvador, despite a judge’s order to turn the planes around and allow the detainees to have due process.

The intelligence report found that there were some low-level contacts between the Maduro government and Tren de Aragua but that the gang does not operate at the direction of Venezuela’s leader.

The Office of the Director of National Intelligence dismissed the findings as the work of "deep state actors" working in conjunction with the media.

"President Trump took necessary and historic action to safeguard our nation when he deported these violent Tren de Aragua terrorists," said a statement from the agency. "Now that America is safer without these terrorists in our cities, deep state actors have resorted to using their propaganda arm to attack the President’s successful policies."

The Trump administration has doubled down on the justification for its mass deportation tactics with several court cases currently dealing with the legal ramifications of using the AEA to expel illegal immigrants living in the United States.

"The idea that Maduro is directing Tren de Aragua members and sending criminals to infiltrate the United States is ludicrous," Geoff Ramsey, a Venezuela expert at the Atlantic Council, a Washington-based think tank, told The Washington Post.