Governor Abbott Designates Tren De Aragua a Terrorist Organization

Governor Greg Abbott announced today at a press conference in Houston that Texas is launching a comprehensive, statewide operation to aggressively target the dangerous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA), disrupting their criminal activities and preventing them from gaining a foothold in the state.

Launches a statewide operation targeting Tren De Aragua

Governor Greg Abbott today announced that Texas is launching a comprehensive, statewide operation to aggressively target the dangerous Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) to disrupt their criminal activities and eliminate their foothold in the state during a press conference in Houston. Speaking at the Southeast Texas Regional Headquarters of the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), the Governor also designated TdA as a Foreign Terrorist Organization, directed DPS to elevate it to a Tier 1 gang and create a TdA Strike Team to identify and arrest TdA gang members.

“The recent entry and expansion of the vicious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, is a dangerous and deadly problem for our state and nation,” said Governor Abbott. “Our primary focus is the safety and security of all Texas residents. To address this imminent threat, I have ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to launch a statewide operation directly targeting Tren de Aragua to deter and disrupt their criminal activities. I am also officially designating Tren de Aragua as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. Our goal is to defend Texas from the gang’s growing threat. We will not allow them to use Texas as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens. They have a target on their backs and we are going after them. Texas is the wrong state to do business in.”

The governor was joined at the press conference by DPS Director Steve McCraw, Texas Border Czar Mike Banks and National Border Patrol Council Vice Chairman Chris Cabrera.

Watch the full comments from today’s press conference here.

View the posters from today’s press conference here.

“Tren de Aragua gangsters are like cockroaches,” said DPS Director McCraw. “They multiply rapidly; small break-ins in communities become plagues if not aggressively addressed. These Venezuelan thugs are very combative, violent and certainly adaptable. They are always involved in situations that start with human smuggling. Then they are involved in extortion, kidnapping, rape, assault and sex trafficking of migrants. Governor Abbott has made it very clear: We will not allow any of these gangsters to gain a foothold in Texas.”

“This gang is not like your traditional MS-13, where you can see them coming from a mile away with these crazy tattoos on their faces,” said Cabrera, vice chair of the National Border Patrol Council. “These guys are flying under the radar. As federal agents, we have no way to check these people other than through the honor system. If they tell us their name, we can’t check it against Venezuela’s database. This is a plague that’s not just in Colorado or New York, it’s in Michigan, Florida, Texas, you name it. If people don’t wake up and see this for what it is, we’re going to be in big trouble in this country.”

“I want to be very clear: the Tren de Aragua problem in Texas and throughout the United States is a direct result of open border policies,” said Border Czar Banks. “So it’s no surprise that we have a problem with criminal illegal gangs in the United States, and fortunately we are addressing it. We have a strong legislature that has given us many of the laws that the governor has signed that we are using to address Tren de Aragua. I want to thank the governor for his moral courage to continue to fight this fight and do everything we can to protect Texas and the rest of the United States.”

During the press conference, Governor Abbott provided background on TdA as an extreme version of the horrific MS-13 gang, noting that TdA began as a prison gang in Venezuela and then expanded into a transnational criminal organization that dominates the flow of international migrants from South America through Mexico to the United States. The governor noted that the gang has a history of flooding other countries with Venezuelan military-age men in order to establish a base from which to commit violent crimes in those countries.

Additionally, Governor Abbott officially signed a proclamation designating TdA as a Foreign Terrorist Organization. This designation allows Texas to use the courts to curb the gang’s criminal activity, use civil asset forfeiture to seize their property, and increase criminal penalties during prosecutions. The Governor also directed DPS to establish a TdA Strike Team to aggressively pursue TdA’s criminal activity 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 work with Texas Anti-Gang (TAG) Centers and law enforcement to deliver resources to areas where known TdA activity is occurring.

At the direction of the Governor, DPS will elevate TdA to a Tier 1 Gang to ensure that Texas is devoting 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 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, subdue and prosecute violent criminal members throughout the state.

Last year, Governor Abbott signed Senate Bill 1900, which defined transnational drug cartels and criminal organizations as foreign terrorist organizations in the State of Texas and increased penalties for the distribution of illegal drugs and the operation of stash houses. The law also added foreign terrorist organizations to the current intelligence databases and allowed state and local authorities to bring public nuisance claims against them. The Governor also signed Senate Bill 4 of Special Session #3, which created a mandatory minimum prison sentence of 10 years for human trafficking. The law passed with bipartisan support and increased criminal penalties for the operation of stash houses and created a mandatory minimum prison sentence of five years.

View the Governor’s proclamation designating TdA as a Foreign Terrorist Organization here.