HOUSTON, Texas — More than 100 suspected members of Tren de Aragua (TdA) were among those involved in a violent border attack in El Paso, Texas, in March. Texas Governor Greg Abbott has declared the Venezuelan prison gang a Foreign Terrorist Organization.
“Following a violent incident earlier this year in which immigrants attacked the Texas National Guard at the El Paso border, more than 100 suspected members of TdA were arrested,” Governor Abbott said Monday as he announced plans to crack down on the group's growing presence across the country.
The violent border incursion, covered exclusively by The Washington Post, saw hundreds of illegal immigrants break through barbed wire and enter the United States, pushing past New York police officers in the process.
In one case, a migrant desperately trying to cross the besieged southern border stomped on a soldier's knee.
Abbott labeled Venezuelan gangs “foreign terrorist organizations” and detailed his plans to crush the gang threat.
“The State of Texas is aggressively pursuing these foreign terrorist organizations in Texas,” the governor declared at a press conference Monday.
The plan would require a minimum 10-year prison sentence for TdA smugglers who bring people into Texas, create a database to track gang members and strengthen law enforcement's ability to target this international criminal organization.
“The goal of Texas law enforcement is to protect our state from the growing TdA threat. We will not allow them to use Texas as a base of operations and terrorize our citizens,” he fumed.
After the March unrest, a judge dismissed charges against 211 immigrants suspected of rioting, and Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) subsequently allowed dozens of migrants into the United States.
Since then, the gang has established bases across the country, taking over an apartment building in Colorado, a hotel in El Paso near the Texas border and allegedly shooting at a police officer in New York.
Abbott said Texas authorities recently arrested 20 people, including suspected members of TdA, at the shuttered Gateway Hotel in El Paso for allegedly engaging in human trafficking, prostitution and drug possession.
The El Paso Motel 6 was also housing a fugitive Venezuelan migrant suspected of involvement in a jewelry store robbery in Denver in June, as first reported by The Washington Post.
During Gov. Abbott's announcement, Chris Cabrera, president of the National Border Patrol Council in Texas' Rio Grande Valley, emphasized the challenge for Border Patrol agents to stop the “epidemic” of TdA.
He likened the “weak-minded” Harris-Biden administration to a “self-respect system” for failing to conduct thorough background checks and allowing gangs to enter the US.
This is because Venezuela does not provide any criminal history information to U.S. authorities.
In testimony before the committee last year, Border Patrol Commissioner Rodney Scott blasted the “screening” as akin to “running a clean slate.”
“This is not an MS-13 gang with weird tattoos all over their faces and you can see them coming from a mile away,” Cabrera said.
“These individuals operate under the radar. As federal agents, we have no way of vetting these individuals other than through the honor vetting system,” he added.
Texas law enforcement sources recently told The Post that TdA has become more “organized” in the United States in recent months and plans to remain here for the time being.
