Governor Greg Abbott says Tren De Aragua gang is ‘growing threat’ in Texas – Houston Public Media

Screenshot via Governor Greg Abbott’s office

Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced at a press conference in Houston Monday morning that he has designated the Venezuelan gang Tren De Aragua as a “foreign terrorist organization.”

“We are not going to allow them to use Texas as a base to terrorize our citizens,” Abbott said. “Texas is a law and order state.”

Abbott was sparse on specifics, describing numerous arrests of “suspected” Tren De Aragua members. He said the state does not have access to a database that would confirm membership in the gang.

“There is currently no TDA database to be able to verify whether these arrests are of TDA members or non-TDA members,” he said. “So what the Texas Department of Public Safety is working on, as are other law enforcement agencies, is to create a database from scratch.”

Abbott specifically pointed to a hotel in El Paso that was recently closed due to criminal activity. But the district attorney told the El Paso Times that the hotel had not been taken over by any specific gangalthough police have made statements stating that Tren De Aragua was active there.

Despite the lack of a database, Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw said the group has been linked to “human trafficking, extortion, kidnapping and a variety of other crimes” in Houston.

Abbott also announced that he would designate the group as a “Tier 1” gang, which would allow DPS to focus more resources on targeting the group.

“Our goal as a law enforcement agency in the state of Texas is to defend our state against the growing threat of TDA,” he said.

In July, the Treasury Department designated the group as a “major transnational criminal organization.”