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What’s Tren de Aragua?
Tren de Aragua is a Venezuelan gang that began in a jail within the state of Aragua and has since expanded into Central America and america, together with Texas, New York, Colorado and Wisconsin. The group focuses on human smuggling and different prison exercise that targets migrants, equivalent to kidnapping, extortion, and drug trafficking.
In keeping with a report from Transparency Venezuela, the group adopted its identify between 2013 and 2015 however might have begun operations earlier.
What’s Texas doing to focus on the gang?
Gov. Greg Abbott signed a proclamation on Sept. 16 that declares the gang a overseas terrorist group. He additionally directed the Texas Division of Public Security to mobilize a strike group with state troopers, Texas Rangers, and different legislation enforcement teams to pursue the gang wherever they’re recognized to be working in Texas.
Declaring the gang a overseas terrorist group means gang members might face elevated sentences for crimes equivalent to distributing unlawful medication. State legislation additionally authorizes civil penalties in opposition to overseas terrorist organizations.
Texas doesn’t have a database that tracks people affiliated with Tren de Aragua, however Abbott introduced that legislation enforcement officers would work to create one.
How does the gang function?
The group began by extorting companies in Venezuela after which started trafficking people into Colombia, Peru and Chile. In keeping with Abbott, the group seeks to infiltrate international locations and arrange a base of operation for his or her prison exercise. DPS Director Steve McCraw stated El Paso was the gang’s “ground zero.”
Is the gang a significant public security risk in Texas?
In keeping with Abbott, there was Tren de Aragua exercise in Texas since 2021. He stated greater than 3,000 undocumented immigrants from Venezuela have been arrested in Texas for crimes equivalent to human smuggling, and one other greater than 200 are wished.
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Michael Shifter, a senior fellow with the Inter-American Dialogue, a overseas coverage suppose tank, stated the gang poses a better danger to Latin American international locations equivalent to Peru, Colombia and Chile. Nonetheless, Shifter stated, the group ought to be taken severely.
“It is clearly a major problem that needs to be dealt with,” he stated. “I think there’s reason to be confident that U.S. law enforcement can handle it.”
Did the gang take over a resort in El Paso?
Throughout his press convention, Abbott famous that greater than 100 TDA members had been arrested on the Gateway Lodge in downtown El Paso on fees together with human smuggling and possession of unlawful medication. Some media stories described it as a “takeover” of the resort by the gang.
The 121-year-old resort was shut down on Sept. 12 due to broad prison exercise, not due to any particular gang, in accordance with the El Paso County Lawyer. The resort had operated and not using a legitimate certificates of occupancy and was the scene of persistent prison exercise together with aggravated assaults, prison trespass, public intoxication and housebreaking, in accordance with the county lawyer’s workplace. Police stories word that prison exercise elevated within the resort due to Tren de Aragua.
How is the gang’s exercise enjoying into U.S. politics?
When he introduced the state crackdown on the gang, Abbott stated Texas has seen “slow but increasing activity of TDA in our state” which he blamed on President Joe Biden. “The fact of the matter is, this is something that has exploded in the aftermath of the president saying that if you’re from Venezuela, you’ll be allowed in the United States.”
In January, the Biden administration introduced a humanitarian parole program permitting sure individuals from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela to dwell and work lawfully within the U.S. for as much as two years.
Abbott’s press convention got here on the heels of the presidential debate, the place former president Donald Trump introduced up on-line right-wing stories of Venezuelan gangs “taking over” a Colorado condo advanced.
Shifter stated Abbott’s transfer should be checked out within the context of the upcoming presidential election, since Trump has hammered on the narrative that undocumented immigrants are invading the nation, committing crimes and stealing jobs from People.
“Trump has clearly highlighted this in the debate and is trying to stoke fear,” Shifter stated. “I think Gov. Abbott is trying to ratchet it up saying this is a major transnational group and the Biden-Harris administration has not been effective in containing it.”
