TOCORON, Venezuela (AP) — Tocorón once had it all. A nightclub, swimming pools, tigers, a lavish suite and plenty of food. This was not a Las Vegas-style resort, but it felt like it for some of the thousands who until recently lived in luxury in this sprawling prison in northern Venezuela.

The Tren de Aragua has been on the radar of U.S. authorities for years. But it wasn’t until Trump campaigned for a second White House term that the gang became widely known in the U.S., as he and his allies turned the group into the face of the alleged threat posed by immigrants living in the country illegally.

The court papers suggest that the administration has set a low bar for seeking the removal of the Venezuelan migrants, whom officials have described as belonging to the street gang, Tren de Aragua.

Attorneys for the more than 200 Venezuelans deported to an El Salvador prison say immigration agents used a seemingly arbitrary check-list form to tally points to determine if the migrants belonged to Trend de Aragua.

The Trump administration deported more alleged Venezuelan and MS-13 gang members to El Salvador over the weekend, the U.S. State Department said on Monday, even as questions arose in a legal challenge over the process to determine gang members.

Internal DHS and FBI documents question the effectiveness of using tattoos to identify Venezuelan members of Tren de Aragua.

Despite the president designating the group as a terrorist organization, almost all of the 37 men flagged by Chicago police as possible members have faced only drug charges and citations for driving infractions.

CARACAS, Venezuela — Debates over President Trump’s hard-line migration policies are focused on the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, to some a ruthless transnational criminal organization and to others the pretext for an overhyped anti-migrant narrative.

At the center of an increasingly fraught immigration crackdown led by President Donald Trump is Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua. NBC News’ David Noriega explains the origins of the gang — and the narrative the Trump administration has crafted around it.