Texas Governor Hits Venezuelan Tren de Aragua Gang with Foreign Terrorist Designation

HOUSTON, Texas — Texas Governor Greg Abbott designated the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang as a foreign terrorist organization on Monday. The move gives Texas law enforcement officials additional tools and resources to attack the gang and “disrupt their criminal operations and deny their foothold in the state,” the governor stated.

During a press conference on Monday, Governor Abbott said he was “designating Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization. Our goal is to defend Texas from the growing threat of the gang.”

“The recent entry and expansion of the vicious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, is a dangerous and deadly problem facing our state and nation,” Abbott explained. “Our top focus is the safety and security of all Texans.”

The governor also designated the TdA gang as a Tier 1 gang and ordered the creation of a TdA Strike Team to identify and arrest TdA gang members.

The move by Governor Abbott follows news of violent activity by alleged TdA gang members that forced a Texas district court judge to order the closing of a hotel in El Paso, Breitbart Texas reported. City officials complained in a lawsuit against the owners of the Gateway Hotel after responding to nearly 700 calls for service to the address.

Texas Department of Public Safety Director, Colonel Steve McCraw, likened the spread of TdA gang violence to an infestation of cockroaches.

“They multiply quickly; small intrusions into communities become infestations if not aggressively pursued,” Colonel McCraw told reporters at the press conference. “These Venezuelan thugs are highly combative, violent, and certainly adaptable.”

McCraw explained that gang members are involved in human smuggling, extortion, kidnapping, rape, assault, and sex trafficking.

“Governor Abbott has made it very clear: We will not allow any of these gangsters to gain a foothold in Texas,” McCraw stated.

Texas Border Czar Mike Banks placed the blame for the influx of Venezuelan gang members directly at the feet of the Biden-Harris open border policies.

“I want to be very clear: the Tren de Aragua problem in Texas and the rest of the United States is a direct result of open border policies,” Banks stated. “So there is no surprise that we have a criminal illegal gang problem in the United States, and thankfully, we’re addressing that.”

During Fiscal Year 2020, President Donald Trump’s last full year in office, Border Patrol agents apprehended only 465 Venezuelan migrants who crossed from Mexico into the five Texas-based sectors. During the first year of the Biden-Harris administration, a dramatic increase in crossings led to the apprehension of nearly 68,000 Venezuelan migrants.

Texas DPS Slides Regarding Tren de Aragua Venezuelan Gang

From FY21-FY24 year-to-date, Border Patrol agents apprehended nearly 499,000 Venezuelan migrants who illegally entered the United States in the five Texas-based Border Patrol Sectors, Texas DPS officials reported.

In September 2022, Governor Abbott also designated certain Mexican drug cartels as Foreign Terrorist Organizations, Breitbart Texas reported. “Cartels are terrorists, and it’s time we treated them that way,” Abbott said at the time.

The executive order identified the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels (CJNG) as terrorist organizations. He requested President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris create federal terrorist designations for these cartels and others producing and distributing fentanyl.

The governor later codified the executive order into law with the signing in June 2023 of Senate Bill 1900.

Governor Abbott called the TdA gang an “extreme version of the heinous MS-13 gang.” He said the gang began as a Venezuelan prison gang and then transformed into a transnational criminal organization “that is dominating the international flow of migrants from South America through Mexico and into the United States.”

A statement from the Office of the Texas Governor reads:

Additionally, Governor Abbott officially signed a proclamation designating TdA as a foreign terrorist organization. With this designation, Texas will be able to use the courts to curb the gang’s criminal operations, use civil asset forfeiture to take their property, and enhance criminal penalties during prosecution. The Governor also directed DPS to create a TdA strike team to aggressively target TdA criminal operations in Texas. This strike team will include DPS assets and hundreds of personnel, including DPS Highway Patrol troopers, Special Agents, and Texas Rangers. They will coordinate and collaborate with Texas Anti-Gang (TAG) Centers and law enforcement to surge resources to areas where known TdA activity is taking place.

At the direction of the Governor, DPS will elevate TdA to a Tier 1 Gang to ensure Texas deploys the necessary resources to stop the gang’s criminal activity in the state. With this new elevation, DPS will coordinate operations with federal and local partners through the state-funded TAG Centers in El Paso, Houston, Irving, Laredo, Lubbock, McAllen, San Antonio, Tyler, and Waco. TAG Centers house federal, state, and local law enforcement agencies that work together to identify, target, investigate, suppress, and prosecute violent criminal members throughout the state.

“Our goal is to defend Texas from the growing threat of the gang,” Abbott concluded in his address on Monday. “We will not let them use Texas as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens.”

“They have a target on their back, and we are going after them,” the governor stated. “Texas is the wrong state for them to try to do business in.”