By Joe Chatham
FAIR
Last week, a leaked intelligence memorandum from the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) confirmed the growing influence of the infamous and violent Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, in the United States. According to the memo, first obtained by the New York Post, the gang is now operating in 16 states and Washington, DC, impacting half of the country’s population.
Having entered the U.S. along with hundreds of thousands of Venezuelan nationals over the past four years, Tren de Aragua is facing increasing scrutiny after a series of high-profile crimes. The DHS memo, entitled “Expansion of Tren de Aragua (TdA) Across the United States Presents Challenges for Law Enforcement,” explicitly notes that, “[a]s the population of Venezuelan nationals [in the United States] continues to increase, the potential for violent TdA migrants is highly probable.” It states that the gang’s recent emergence in Washington, DC and Virginia follows “increases in migrant populations.”
So far, government officials believe the gang to be operating Washington, DC, Virginia, Montana, Wyoming, California, Colorado, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Louisiana, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Wisconsin.
The DHS memo outlines a series of crimes associated with the gang, followed by the transfer of criminal profits “back to South America as a means of financing additional criminal enterprises.” In one startling example, a TdA member engaged in a fraudulent check scheme in Florida and subsequently sent $118,000 back to Venezuela. That crime is just one example of the gang’s shift towards more “lower-level fraud and theft schemes” to continue funding its rapid expansion.
Beyond fraud and theft crimes, the gang has also continued to engage in trafficking and violent crimes. According to Tennessee Bureau of Investigation Director David Rausch: “This gang has exploited [the border]…They go from human trafficking to organized retail crime theft, and then they move into the drug trade, taking on the cartels in very violent, bloody battles that they’ve had.” Just a few recent examples of Tren De Aragua’s violent activities include:
- In January 2024, a group of migrants violently attacked two New York City police officers. It was later reported that two of the attackers, Wilson Juarez and Kelvin Servita-Arocha, were members of Tren de Aragua and both in the country illegally.
- In February 2024, Laken Riley, a 22-year-old nursing student, was brutally murdered while going for a run near the University of Georgia’s campus. Her murderer, Jose Antonio Ibarra, is an illegal alien from Venezuela and a documented member of Tren de Aragua, who was unlawfully paroled into the United States in September 2022.
- In October 2024, it was confirmed that Tren de Aragua took control of several apartment complexes in Aurora, Colorado. According to local landlords, gang members savagely attacked employees and took over by using violent threats and extortion.
- In October 2024, the Texas Department of Public Safety arrested Estefania Primera, also known as “La Barbie,” for her alleged role in leading a sex trafficking ring. In one sickening incident, Primera, an illegal alien from Venezuela with ties to Tren de Aragua, “allegedly drugged a woman and brought men in to gang-rape her while she was unconscious.”
Tren de Aragua (which literally translates to “Train of Aragua”) is believed to have been founded more than a decade ago in the Venezuelan state of Aragua, specifically in its Tocoron prison used to house the country’s most hardened criminals. From that prison, the gang expanded throughout South American countries, including Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, and Mexico, and gained notoriety for its violence before coming to the United States. Some reports put the gang’s total membership at as many as 5,000, with yearly profits of $10-15 million.
In July, the Biden-Harris administration designated TdA as a Transnational Criminal Organization (TCO), a move which allows the Treasury Department to sanction the gang. In a statement at the time, Treasury Under Secretary for Terrorism and Financial Intelligence Brian Nelson said, “Today’s designation of Tren de Aragua as a significant Transnational Criminal Organization underscores the escalating threat it poses to American communities… As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s efforts to target Transnational Criminal Organizations, we will deploy all tools and authorities against organizations like Tren de Aragua that prey on vulnerable populations to generate revenue, engage in a range of criminal activities across borders, and abuse the U.S. financial system.”
In Congress, Republicans have also been sounding alarm bells for months. In September 2024, Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) sent a letter to Attorney General Merrick Garland joined by nine Senate and House Members calling on the Department of Justice (DOJ) to act quickly in combatting the gang. The letter stated: “With our communities falling prey to Venezuelan and other criminal organizations – who not only willfully violate the laws of the land, but also now threaten American citizens – the President and the executive branch are failing in its responsibilities laid out in the Constitution.”
In the House of Representatives, Members have highlighted the growing crimes associated with TdA and called for action. Representative Tony Gonzales from Texas referred to the gang as “MS-13 on steroids” in August this year. And just last month, fellow Texas Representative Chip Roy sent a letter to DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, joined by Texas Senator Ted Cruz, saying that the gang is growing at “an alarming rate” and laying the blame on Biden-Harris administration’s policies, such as its unlawful CHNV parole program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans, and Venezuelans.
Moving forward, the incoming Trump administration and 119th Congress must take immediate steps to crack down on the violent gang and roll back the failed immigration policies of the current administration. American communities have been forced to live with the threat of illegal alien crime for far too long. FAIR looks forward to working closely with both the Trump administration and Congress to restore order to our borders and safety across the country.
