(The Center Square) – Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday declared the Venezuelan gang, Tren De Aragua (TDA) as a foreign terrorist organization. Texas Department of Public Safety is aggressively targeting gang members who were released into country by Biden administration, he said.
“I will not allow them to use Texas as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens,” Abbott said at a news conference in Houston. “Texas is a law and order state and I will ensure that law enforcement has every tool they need to keep our community safe.”
Tren De Aragua is characterized as “MS13 on steroids,” Abbott said, referring to a violent El Salvadoran gang. It’s “the largest criminal organization in Venezuela … that has now expanded to a transnational criminal organization … dominating the international flow of migrants from South America through Mexico into the United States.”
They are known for brutal violence, murder, kidnapping, extortion, bribery and human and drug trafficking, Abbott said, linked to more than 100 law enforcement investigations nationwide. TDA gang members were “involved in the brutal attack and assault” of New York Police Department officers, the murder of Georgia medical student Laken Riley, and many others, he said.
“In other countries infiltrated by TDA, history has shown they first flood the countries with military age Venezuelan men. Next, they begin to establish a base of operations. Finally, TDA begins a spree of violent and bloody criminal activity. We've now seen the beginnings of these operations in the state of Texas.”
Abbott said wouldn't allow that to happen under his watch and officially declared TDA a foreign terrorist organization.
“We will bring the full weight of the government against the TDA,” he said. "The designation will enable Texas courts to halt their operations using civil asset forfeiture, take their property, and use enhanced criminal penalties to keep them in jail behind bars for longer periods of time.”
Texas DPS has launched a statewide operation to target TDA gang members, elevated it to a Tier 1 gang, the most violent, and is developing a database to track gang members, characterizations, and arrests. No such database currently exists at the local, state or federal level.
“TDA gangsters are like cockroaches,” Texas DPS Commander Steve McCraw said. “They multiply quickly, small intrusions into communities become infestations if not aggressively pursued. These Venezuelan thugs … are highly combative. They're violent, they’re certainly adaptable and they always are involved in criminal activities that first start with human smuggling … of migrants.” They’re involved in extortion, kidnappings, rape, assaults, and sex trafficking, he said. “Once they’re in place, they expand their criminal operations … pushing out other criminal gangs operating in that area.”
McCraw said Texas anti-gang centers already have ongoing criminal enterprise investigations against TDA. They are also asking federal partners to share information on the whereabouts of Venezuelan migrants. “That's very important, because unfortunately, you're either a TDA member or a victim of TDA. This information would be extremely helpful in identifying additional TDA members and their victims.”
He also said that some may “find it harsh using the terms ‘infestation’ and ‘cockroaches.’ But all you have to do is interview or spend some time with some victims … and you'll understand” how dangerous they are.
Abbott made the announcement after a judge ordered that a hotel in El Paso be shut down after it allegedly harbored violent illegal border crossers, including TDA gang members. Texas DPS special agents were involved with arrests as well as arresting 100 suspected TDA gang members involved in El Paso riots, Abbott said.
The U.S. Department of State has designated the gang, which began in the Tocorón Prison in Aragua, Venezuela, as a transnational criminal organization. It’s offering up to $12 million in rewards for information leading to the arrests and/or convictions of its leaders who are believed to be in Columbia and Venezuela.
TDA gang members have recently become entrenched in major cities nationwide, Abbott and other law enforcement officials argue, because after illegally entering the country, they were released into the U.S. because of Biden administration policies. Since fiscal 2021 through July, they total nearly 856,000, the greatest number in U.S. history.
Another 115,000 Venezuelans were granted parole through a program created by Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas. The overwhelming majority are single military age adults, according to CBP data. The parole program has been directly linked to perpetrators committing violent crimes against Americans, including TDA gang members, who are being arrested nationwide, The Center Square reported .
In Texas, law enforcement officials have arrested more than 3,000 Venezuelan illegal border crossers; more than 200 are wanted, Abbott said.
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