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A new report published by the Heritage Foundation offers the first comprehensive English-language look at mass Venezuela gang Tren d’Aragua (TdA) whose cruel exploits in the United States have made national headlines.
The verdict? According to the report’s author, Joseph Humire, the threat America faces from the Aragua Train is much worse than most people think.
Titled “Derailing the Aragua Train,” the report offers U.S. leaders a starting point for understanding the violent criminal organization it says was “honed and perfected within Venezuelan prison walls then exported throughout the “Western Hemisphere”.
Humire told Fox News Digital that he hopes the report will provide input Trump administration a starting point on how to respond and dismantle ToA before it can continue to grow more roots within US borders.
Migrants enter the United States in Lukeville, Arizona. (Fox News)
“The ToA is unique among criminal organizations in that it has an ideology associated with it,” Humire said in the report. “Now that the ToA is already present in America, to address this, a proper understanding of the ToA is needed to detect its motives, tactics and overall organized crime strategy.”
What is Tren d’Aragua?
Humire, who is director of the Center for a safe and free society already Heritage Foundation colleague, told Fox News Digital that the first thing to understand about Tren de Aragua is that it is much more than a gang. Rather, it is an organized international terrorist effort backed by some of America’s worst enemies to sow chaos and destabilize the US.
Born out of a Venezuelan prison more than a decade ago, Tren de Aragua, meaning “Train from Aragua,” burst into the national consciousness in 2023 after reports of members of the group holding a Entire apartment building hostage in Aurora, Coloradoa suburb of Denver.
Since then, reports of violent crimes by Tren de Aragua members have spread like wildfire, including the high-profile murders of nursing students. Laken Riley in Georgia and a 12-year-old boy Jocelyn Nungaray in Houston.
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José Antonio Ibarra, an illegal immigrant from Venezuela, was recently convicted of the murder of nursing student Laken Riley in Georgia.
Media coverage and American politicians have turned Tren de Aragua into a group of mere thugs and criminals. However, Humire’s report emphasizes that Tren de Aragua is a state-sponsored transnational criminal organization sponsored and integrated into the Venezuelan socialist government.
Instead of working to detect and deter criminals and terror, Humire said the key aspects of the venezuelan government help facilitate ToA operations, not only in Venezuela but throughout the Western Hemisphere.
Backed by the Venezuelan government, he said TdA has a deliberate “invasion ideology” that is determined to gain territorial control of neighborhoods and regions in a matter of weeks rather than the years-long process most gangs take and transnational criminal organizations.
Venezuela President Nicolás Maduro (AP Photo/Matias Delacroix/Archive)
Why is Tren de Aragua spreading across the US?
While many comparisons have been made between Tren de Aragua and the Salvadoran gang La Mara Salvatrucha 13 (MS-13)TdA is expanding much faster, which Humire said is likely due to its unique origin and state sponsorship in Venezuela.
He also alleged that the rapid expansion of TdA in the United States is a “direct consequence of the failed immigration policies of the Biden-Harris Administration and the lack of border enforcement.”
The Biden Probation program for Cubans, Haitians, Nicaraguans and Venezuelans and the Venezuelan parole program before having, in many cases, brought Venezuelan migrants into the country en masse with little or no vetting. Due to these policies, the Venezuelan population in the United States has grown by nearly one million, 520.8%, making it the fastest growing nationality in the US since 2021.
The result has been that, while TdA is new to the US, it now has a presence in more than 30 major US cities and at least 100 federal investigations involving the group are underway, the report says. “capturing most of American law.” execution community by surprise.”
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott announced Monday that the state will target a Venezuelan gang that he says is known for brutal violence and murder and poses a threat to the safety of Texans. (X/@GregAbbott_TX)
How to “derail” the train
In the first 100 days of his new administration, Humire said Trump should follow suit Texas’ efforts to eliminate the gang making good on his promise to release one “Operation Aurora” take a “whole-of-government approach” that uses federal resources within the Border Patrol, Immigration and Customs Enforcement and the military to complement state-led law enforcement efforts, as well as col· work with Latin American allies to attack TdA from all angles.
“The main leaders of ToA are not believed to have arrived in America yet, meaning time is of the essence to take preventive measures,” the report said.
Humire said the Trump Department of Homeland Security should immediately label TdA a transnational terrorist group and mark Venezuelan migrants as “foreigners of special interest”. The designation would reverse the Biden administration’s policy of cracking down on Venezuelan migrants and instead allow U.S. immigration officials to more appropriately screen Venezuelan migrants.
While that may seem controversial, Humire said it’s something that would not only better protect American citizens inside, but also legitimize asylum seekers fleeing Venezuela.
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Venezuelan immigrant Louis Sanchez asks Texas National Guard troops to let his family pass through razor wire after they crossed the Rio Grande from Mexico on Sept. 27, 2023, in Eagle Pass. (John Moore/Getty Images)
“This is really meant to protect Venezuelan migrants because you’re only coming from one of those countries,” he said. “Most Venezuelan migrants will agree with this because they don’t want to be infiltrated by Tren de Aragua, and all Venezuelan migrants know how brutal and dangerous Tren de Aragua really is.”
What will Trump do?
Humire said there are already positive signs from Trump’s transition that the president-elect is taking his promise to dismantle ToA seriously.
“I think appointing the border czar so early in the transition process was a clear signal that this is one of the top, if not the top, priorities of the new Trump administration,” he said. “And Tom Homan, who was appointed border czar, is very aware of this Tren de Aragua gang and all the transnational criminal organizations that are undermining American sovereignty.”
donald trump (Brandon Bell/Pool via AP/File)
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He also said that some of Trump’s key cabinet appointments, such as Senator Marco Rubio as Secretary of State i Representative Michael Waltz for national security adviserit’s evidence of a whole-of-government approach where people in the administration realize that ToA “could be a big problem if we don’t tackle it right away.”
“This is something the Biden administration could have done. They had all the tools to do it, but they missed the key ingredient, which is the political will,” he said. “So the political will of the new administration to address this issue is very high, from the president to his appointees and everywhere.”
