Texas officials on Monday designated a Venezuelan gang called the Tren de Aragua a “foreign terrorist group,” backing former President Donald Trump’s claim that many migrants who entered the United States were released from prisons in Latin America.
Tren de Aragua is an international criminal organization that operates in several Latin American countries and engages in extortion, murder, drug trafficking and people smuggling, authorities said.
Because of a political and economic crisis in Venezuelamany people from that country are allowed to enter the US and apply for asylum.
But Texas’ top border official, Mike Banks, claimed that Venezuela “has released prisoners with one condition: you leave Venezuela and you don’t come back.”
He said the administrations of President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris are encouraging such people to come to the United States with what the banks called an open border policy.
Harris is running against Trump in November’s presidential election.
Immigration advocates present a very different picture, arguing that the Biden administration has cracked down on the border with undue restrictions on people who want to cross and seek asylum.
Appearing at the same press conference as Banks, Governor Greg Abbott formally declared Tren de Aragua a “foreign terrorist organization.”
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It allows authorities to go after the gang under tougher anti-terror laws and also allows for the creation of a task force specifically assigned to combat the group.
Trump said that on Friday if he becomes president, he will order large-scale deportations of migrants, starting in Ohio and Colorado.
The pledge came on the heels of his debate with Harris earlier this week, when he made it refuted claim that migrants in Springfield, Ohio are eating residents’ pet dogs and cats.
Trump said Friday that he will send those migrants “back to Venezuela,” even though most of the migrants in Springfield are Haitian.
Springfield has had to increase security because of threats made as viral, false claims about Haitian immigrants stealing and eating pets continues to circulate after being boosted by Trump and his running mate, Ohio Sen. JD Vance.