More than 100 suspected members of Tren de Aragua (TdA) were a part of the group that violently stormed the border at El Paso, Texas in March — as Texas Gov. Greg Abbott has declared the Venezuelan prison gang a foreign terrorist organization.
“Earlier this year, more than 100 suspected TdA members were arrested after the riots at the El Paso border, when immigrants assaulted the Texas National Guard,” Gov. Abbott revealed Monday, as he announced a plan to crack down on the group’s growing presence across the US.
The wild border rush, captured exclusively by The Post, saw hundreds of illegal migrants break through razor wire to dash into the US — shoving Lone Star State troops in the process.
In one case, a migrant stomped on a service member’s knee as they tried to desperately make their way across the besieged southern border.
Abbott labeled the Venezuelan gang a “foreign terrorist organization” as he detailed his plan to quash the gang’s threat.
“Texas is aggressively going after these foreign terrorist organizations of TdA,” the governor declared during the Monday press conference.
The plan would institute a 10-year mandatory minimum sentence for TdA smugglers bringing people into Texas, create a database to track members of the gang and beef up law enforcement’s capabilities to target the transnational criminal organization.
“Our goal among law enforcement in the state of Texas is to defend our state from the growing threat of TdA. We are not going to allow them to use Texas as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens,” he fumed.
Following the March melee, a judge dismissed charges against 211 of the migrants accused of rioting and then Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) let dozens of them go free into the US.
Since then, the gang has created footholds across the country, allegedly taking over apartments in Colorado, seizing hotels near the Texas border in El Paso and shooting cops in New York. --->READ MORE HERE
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| Kaylee Greenlee Beal for The Texas Tribune |
Abbott signed a proclamation declaring Tren de Aragua a foreign terrorist organization and directed Texas DPS to create strike teams targeting the gang.
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday announced the state is going to target a Venezuelan gang that he said was notorious for brutal violence and murder and posed a threat to Texans’ safety.
At a press conference in Houston, Abbott signed a proclamation that declares the Tren de Aragua gang a foreign terrorist organization, and directed the Department of Public Safety to create new strike teams of highway patrol officers, SWAT teams, helicopters, canines and Texas Rangers to target areas with known TDA activity.
“We will bring the full weight of the government against the TDA by declaring TDA a foreign terrorist organization,” Abbott said before signing the proclamation. “Texas will use the courts to halt their operations, use civil asset forfeiture to take their property, use enhanced criminal penalties to keep them in jail, behind bars for longer periods of time.”
The governor singled out El Paso as a hotbed for recent criminal activity by suspected members of Tren de Aragua. He said residents there had recently been concerned about criminal activity in a local hotel where 20 suspected Venezuelan gang members were arrested.
El Paso County has denied “the hotel was taken over by any gang” and said it was shut down because of a lawsuit focused on broad criminal activity at the hotel.
“It's important to clarify that this lawsuit was not prompted by criminal activities attributed to any specific group or gang,” El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez said in a statement. “I want to be clear that at no time did we allege in our lawsuit that the hotel was taken over by any gang or group of individuals.”
Abbott also said a law the Legislature passed last year would be used against members of Tren de Agua who smuggle immigrants. Under Senate Bill 4, people convicted of smuggling immigrants or operating a stash house receive a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison. --->READ MORE HERE
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