Governor Greg Abbott Announces Crackdown on Venezuelan Gangs

By Juan Salinas II and Pooja Salhotra, The Texas Tribune

September 16, 2024

“Gov. Greg Abbott Announces Crackdown on Venezuelan Gangs” was first published by The Texas Tribune, a nonprofit, nonpartisan media organization that informs — and engages — Texans about public policy, politics, government and state issues.

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Texas Governor Greg Abbott announced Monday that the state will crack down on a Venezuelan gang that he says is known for brutal violence and murder and poses a threat to the safety of Texas residents.

At a press conference in Houston, Abbott signed a proclamation declaring the Tren de Aragua gang a foreign terrorist organization. He also ordered the Department of Public Safety to create new strike teams consisting of highway patrol officers, SWAT teams, helicopters, dogs, and Texas Rangers. These teams were to target areas known to have TDA activity.

“We will bring the full weight of the government against the TDA by declaring the TDA a foreign terrorist organization,” Abbott said before signing the proclamation. “Texas will use the courts to shut them down, use civil asset forfeiture to seize their property, use harsher criminal penalties to keep them in prison, behind bars for extended periods of time.”

The governor singled out El Paso as a hotbed for recent criminal activity by suspected members of Tren de Aragua. He said residents there were recently concerned about criminal activity at a local hotel where 20 suspected Venezuelan gang members had been arrested.

El Paso County denies that “the hotel was taken over by a gang” and says it was closed because of a lawsuit alleging widespread criminal activity at the hotel.

“It is important to make clear that this lawsuit was not brought by criminal activity attributed to any specific group or gang,” El Paso County Attorney Christina Sanchez said in a statement. “I want to make it clear that at no point in our lawsuit did we allege that the hotel was taken over by a gang or group of individuals.”

Abbott also said a law the Legislature passed last year would be used against Tren de Agua members who smuggle immigrants. Under Senate Bill 4, people convicted of smuggling immigrants or running a stash house would face a minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.

“We are not going to allow them to use Texas as a base to terrorize our citizens,” Abbott said at the news conference, where he was joined by DPS Director Steve McCraw, Texas Border Czar Mike Banks and National Border Patrol Council Vice Chairman Chris Cabrera.

Abbott’s announcement follows false claims by former President Donald Trump and other GOP leaders about Venezuelan gangs “taking over” an apartment complex in Colorado.

In July, the U.S. Treasury Department declared Tren de Aragua a transnational criminal organization that posed a threat to U.S. communities. The gang focuses on human smuggling, but has also been involved in human trafficking, extortion and drug trafficking, the Treasury Department said.

The U.S. State Department has also offered rewards of up to $12 million for information leading to the arrest or conviction of the gang’s leaders.

A database identifying those involved in the gang does not currently exist, Abbott said, and Texas law enforcement officials will work to create one. According to Abbott, there has been Tren de Aragua activity in Texas since 2021, and more than 3,000 illegal immigrants from Venezuela have been arrested in Texas for crimes, with more than 200 more wanted.

“I could sit here and throw statistics at you and give you numbers on how many people are crossing and how many are getting away,” said Cabrera, the vice chairman of the Border Patrol Council. “But none of that would matter if we were addressing the problem that we have here with this gang.”

According to Abbott, the gang has been linked to more than 100 police investigations across the country, including the shooting of two New York City police officers.

This article originally appeared in The Texas Tribune at https://www.texastribune.org/2024/09/16/texas-venezuelan-gang-el-paso-tren-de-aragua-abbott/.

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