Missouri congressional delegation demands answers about Venezuelan crime

By Bethany Blankley
The Center Square

Members of Missouri’s congressional delegation are demanding answers from the president about violent Tren De Aragua (TdA) Venezuelan prison gang members in the state.

TdA gang members have been accused of committing brutal violence, murder, kidnapping, extortion, bribery and human and drug trafficking, and are linked to more than 100 law enforcement investigations nationwide, The Center Square reported.

In late October, federal officials confirmed that TdA members were not only in Clinton County, in the northwest part of Missouri, but federal authorities advised local law enforcement officers to release them into the community. After performing a traffic stop and contacting U.S. Department of Homeland Security’s Homeland Security Investigations, the officers learned the men they stopped included one known and one suspected TdA member.

Both were in the country illegally. One had been apprehended in September 2023 and was awaiting a federal immigration court hearing. The other has an order for removal and is subject to mandatory detention but wasn’t detained.

“Despite the threat these individuals pose to the citizens of Missouri, Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) personnel contacted local law enforcement personnel and advised that they release the individuals in question because Venezuela refused to accept them,” the lawmakers wrote. The administration “reportedly directed local law enforcement in Missouri to release a known member of [TdA] due to Venezuela’s refusal to cooperate on deportation cases.”

The Biden administration terminated or let expire previous agreements made between certain countries and the Trump administration that required them to accept their citizens who were ordered to be removed from the U.S. Under Biden, not all countries cooperate or accept their citizens’ return as part of the U.S. deportation process, federal authorities have explained to The Center Square.

The delegation, led by U.S. Rep. Sam Graves, whose district includes Clinton County, told the president he’s refused to “hold Venezuela accountable for unacceptable delays in the removal process for illegal immigrants. These delays, sometimes indefinite, not only give the appearance that a foreign nation is being allowed to dictate the enforcement of U.S. immigration law, but also put our communities at risk.”

Under the Biden administration, more than one million Venezuelan illegal border crossers were reported, including at least 117,000 deemed inadmissible who were released into the U.S. through one parole program, The Center Square first reported.

As more Venezuelans illegally entered the U.S., TdA crime increased.

Most TdA crimes have been found to cross multiple state lines, involving murder, bank and ATM theft, carjacking, kidnapping, among other violent crimes, The Center Square has reported.

In July, the U.S. Treasury Department’s Office of Foreign Assets Control designated and sanctioned TdA as a transnational criminal organization. OFAC said TdA “is expanding throughout the Western Hemisphere and engaging in diverse criminal activities, such as human smuggling and trafficking, gender-based violence, money laundering, and illicit drug trafficking,” The Center Square reported.

In addition to human smuggling, TdA has “developed additional revenue sources through a range of criminal activities, such as illegal mining, kidnapping, human trafficking, extortion, and the trafficking of illicit drugs such as cocaine and MDMA,” OFAC said.

Earlier this year, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott designated the group a Foreign Terrorist Organization and expanded statewide law enforcement efforts to target and shut down its operations in the state. He also called on the president to do the same and received no response.

The Texas Department of Public Safety is offering up to $5,000 in rewards for information that leads to TdA gang member arrests; multiple law enforcement operations continue to successfully target TdA in major cities statewide, The Center Square reported.

The Missouri lawmakers asked Biden to provide “prompt and transparent responses” to their questions, including information about why ICE officials advised Clinton County law enforcement officers to release the TdA gang members.

They also asked what steps the administration took “to pressure Venezuela to cooperate on the deportation of dangerous gang members present in the United States illegally;” what actions the president would take if Venezuela continues to refuse to cooperate with U.S. authorities on deportation cases; and how many identified TdA members are illegally in the U.S. who haven’t been deported.

The president is unlikely to respond. President-elect Donald Trump has already said he plans to implement a deportation operation that will first target violent criminals for removal, including TdA members. He’s tapped former ICE Director Tom Homan, who has warned criminals that he’s coming for them.

Joining Graves were U.S. Sens. Josh Hawley and Eric Schmitt and U.S. Reps. Blaine Luetkemeyer, Ann Wagner, Jason Smith, Mark Alfor and Eric Burlison.

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