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OPINION

Tren de Aragua Gains Foothold in US As Biden Fiddles

The opinions expressed by columnists are their own and do not necessarily represent the views of Townhall.com.
AP Photo/Moises Castillo

One of the biggest stories in America right now is the emergence of Tren de Aragua (TdA), a transnational Venezuelan gang that is expanding throughout the U.S., yet you wouldn’t know it based on the attitudes of politicians and legacy media.

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After years of exploiting the Biden Administration’s anti-border policies, TdA is now operating in every region of the U.S., from the Southwest border states to the Acela corridor in the Northeast. This is all happening because the current occupants of the White House have allowed roughly one million illegal aliens from Venezuela to enter the U.S. since 2021. A terrifying Daily Mail report published earlier this month revealed just how much the violent gang has grown its operations here in such a short time.

“What it took MS-13 to do in like a ten-year period, Tren de Aragua has been able to do in less than a year,” former Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) official John Fabbricatore told the Daily Mail. 

The gang has caused an uproar in places far -away from the border, most notably New York City, one of America’s most lawless sanctuary jurisdictions. As the New York Post recently reported, members of the gang have been engaged in a series of robberies across the Big Apple, with some of the suspects as young as 11 years old. The explosion of youth gang crime is a direct result of Biden Administration policy, which encourages unaccompanied minors to travel to the U.S. illegally. Almost every token border security policy imposed by this administration, including its use of Title 42 at the border during the COVID-19 pandemic and its most recent executive order, have exempted minors from enforcement. This likely sounds good to the public, who no doubt harbors special sympathy for unaccompanied minors who present themselves at the border following an arduous journey to the U.S. However, these provisions have created loopholes which violent gangs such as TdA have been more than happy to exploit. 

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Since many members of violent foreign gangs like TdA tend to be under the age of 18, they are typically released into the U.S. without proper vetting. This is a serious threat to public safety in our country. In places like New York, youth offenders tend to be treated with kid gloves and not held accountable, given the city’s lax approach to enforcing the law against criminal minors and illegal aliens. The dereliction of duty from those tasked with enforcing the laws against threats to public safety plays right into the hands of organizations like TdA who seek to do Americans harm. To be fair to New York, even states with strong law-and-order policies are being menaced by this ruthless gang.

Texas has been the center of criminal activity from TdA. The gang has been taking over apartment complexes in the state, leading to the arrest of 19 suspected gang members in San Antonio. This led Rep. Chip Roy and Sen. Ted Cruz to write a fiery letter to Department of Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, eviscerating the Biden Administration’s policies.

“The Biden-Harris administration has imported Venezuelan illegal aliens at an alarming rate, allowing criminals – including the gang Tren de Aragua (TdA) – to gain a foothold in Texas and communities throughout the United States. Texans and the American people deserve better,” they wrote.

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The letter also pointed out specific crimes allegedly committed by TdA members, including the brutal rape and murder of 12-year-old Jocelyn Nungara in Houston earlier this year. It’s important to remember that all of this is a policy choice. There is nothing in the law forcing the Biden Administration to allow millions of foreign nationals to enter the country each year, and there is nothing in the law forcing sanctuary cities like New York to coddle criminal illegal aliens. This entire fiasco is the result of lawmakers prioritizing anti-borders policies over the safety and security of the American people.

The growing presence of transnational gangs in American communities would have been the top story in the nation if it had an objective, watchdog media, but many who consume traditional news sources likely know little about it. The corporate media has made an effort to downplay this crisis in order to provide cover for the Biden Administration, leaving many Americans unaware of the dire situation the country faces.

American communities are being terrorized by foreign gangs because of the Biden Administration’s lawless immigration policies and the cowardice of our nation’s ruling elites. Ordinary Americans are continuing to pay the price.

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William J. Davis is a communications associate for the Immigration Reform Law Institute, a public interest law firm working to defend the rights and interests of the American people from the negative effects of mass migration.

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