(DailyAnswer.org) – Texas Governor Greg Abbott has officially declared the Venezuelan Tren de Aragua (TdA) gang a foreign terrorist organization. By doing this, Texas law enforcement gets more resources to fight the gang and stop its criminal activities in the state, according to Abbott.
In a press conference, Abbott explained the growing danger posed by TdA. “This gang’s arrival in Texas is a major threat,” Abbott said. “Our priority is keeping Texans safe” according to a press release from Abbott’s office.
Abbott also labeled the TdA gang as a “Tier 1” gang, which is the most serious category. He announced the creation of a special team, the “TdA Strike Team,” that will work to track down and arrest TdA members. This decision comes after recent reports of violent gang activity, including an incident in El Paso, where a court shut down a hotel linked to gang members after nearly 700 calls for police.
Colonel Steve McCraw, head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, compared the gang to cockroaches, saying they spread quickly and are hard to control if not dealt with aggressively. “These guys are violent, they adapt fast, and they’re involved in serious crimes like human smuggling, kidnapping, and sex trafficking,” McCraw said.
Texas Border Czar Mike Banks placed the blame on what he called “open border policies” by the Biden administration. He believes these policies have allowed the TdA gang to spread into the U.S. rapidly. “We’ve gone from a few hundred Venezuelan migrants during Trump’s term to nearly 500,000 under Biden,” Banks added, highlighting the growing concerns about the gang’s presence.
This isn’t the first time Abbott has gone after foreign criminal organizations. In 2022, he declared Mexican drug cartels like the Sinaloa and Jalisco New Generation Cartels (CJNG) as terrorist groups. Abbott also urged the federal government to do the same.
Abbott described the TdA gang as a more extreme version of the notorious MS-13 gang. It started as a prison gang in Venezuela but has since grown into a global criminal network that controls migration routes into the U.S.
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