Texas Governor Greg Abbott told Breitbart News that he is providing every means available to law enforcement to take action against the violent Venezuelan Torren de Aragua (TdA) gang. He said there was. The governor said gang members will find their operations in Texas unprofitable and will be forced to withdraw from the Lone Star State.
“When you look at the historical analysis that has been written about them (TdA), you see that they are in business,” Governor Abbott told Breitbart Texas in an exclusive interview on Friday. “They're trying to make money. And what they realize is, if they're coming to Texas, they're losing money. In Texas, this is a deficit. , you will find yourself having to take your business elsewhere.”
Governor Abbott recently designated the Venezuelan prison gang as a foreign terrorist organization, instituting additional law enforcement measures against TdA gang members.
Abbott told Breitbart that the designation would allow the state to seize real estate acquired by the TdA gang for use as a human smuggling stash or other operations.
“The reason it makes sense here is because their standard method of operation is to find homes and other types of buildings and locations to use as hiding places for human trafficking purposes,” the Texas governor explained. did. “And we can use this tool to shut down the physical properties that they're using.”
The governor added that this designation also increases prison penalties, so “if they are arrested, they will be incarcerated for a very long time.”
Breitbart Texas recently reported that Texas DPS officers arrested 20 suspected TdA gang members on charges related to the takeover of the Gateway Hotel in El Paso. Members of Venezuela's violent gangs have been charged with a variety of state crimes, including human smuggling, prostitution, and drug possession.
During the interview, Abbott mentioned the arrests of two more TdA gang members in the San Antonio area last week.
In August, Texas Department of Public Safety officers arrested Torren de Aragua, a confirmed case released by the Biden-Harris administration. Members of the TdA gang have been charged with human smuggling. The Venezuelan gang member was wearing an ICE tracking device at the time of his arrest. According to Breitbart Texas, this is the second time he has been arrested on human smuggling charges.
Abbott told Breitbart that Torren de Aragua operates in El Paso, San Antonio, Houston, Dallas and the Rio Grande Valley border region. In addition to the foreign terrorist organization designation, Mr. Abbott also offered a $5,000 reward for information leading to the identification and arrest of TdA gang members.
During fiscal year 2020, the last full year of President Donald Trump's term, Border Patrol apprehended only 465 Venezuelan migrants crossing from Mexico into five Texas-based sectors. In the first year of the Biden-Harris administration, about 68,000 Venezuelan migrants were apprehended in a dramatic increase in border crossings.
Cumulatively from fiscal years 2021 to 2024, Border Patrol agents apprehended approximately 499,000 Venezuelan immigrants who entered the United States illegally in five Texas-based Border Patrol divisions, according to Texas DPS officials.
“Our goal is to make sure they are found, identified, located, apprehended and locked up,” Abbott said in an interview Friday.
bob price He is an associate editor and senior news contributor on the Breitbart Texas Border Team. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston What is your point? sunday morning talk show. He is also the president of blue wonder cancer care products.
Editor's note: This is part two of our exclusive interview with Texas Governor Greg Abbott. In Part 1, the governor spoke about Vice President Kamala Harris' visit to the border.
