Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Declares Venezuelan Gang a Foreign Terrorist Organization, DPS Targeting
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott on Monday declared the Venezuelan gang, Tren De Aragua (TDA) as a foreign terrorist organization. Texas Department of Public Safety is aggressively targeting gang members who were released into country by Biden administration, he said.
“I will not allow them to use Texas as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens,” Abbott said at a news conference in Houston. “Texas is a law and order state and I will ensure that law enforcement has every tool they need to keep our community safe.”
Tren De Aragua is characterized as “MS13 on steroids,” Abbott said, referring to a violent El Salvadoran gang. It’s “the largest criminal organization in Venezuela … that has now expanded to a transnational criminal organization … dominating the international flow of migrants from South America through Mexico into the United States.”
They are known for brutal violence, murder, kidnapping, extortion, bribery and human and drug trafficking, Abbott said, linked to more than