Texas Republicans are demanding that the Biden-Harris administration provide a “full accounting” of the mass release of Venezuelan migrants as vicious prison gang Tren de Aragua is unleashing violent crime across the nation.
Lone Star State Rep. Chip Roy and Sen. Ted Cruz sent a letter to Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas Thursday, asking to know who and where the Venezuelan migrants released by the Biden-Harris admin are — and how the federal government is responding to TdA’s alarming presence in several US states, including Texas.
“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,” the lawmakers wrote.
“The massive increase in crime committed by Venezuelan illegal aliens is a direct result of this administration’s purposeful policies.”
The Biden-Harris admin has paroled 117,000 Venezuelan migrants into the country since October 2022 through a program that allows them to fly directly to the US, bypassing the border, Roy and Cruz’s letter stated.
Additionally, federal border authorities have encountered 750,000 Venezuelan migrants who have entered through the southern border, according to federal data.
DHS didn’t immediately respond to The Post’s request for comment.
Among the influx of Venezuelan migrants crossing the border were Tren de Aragua members posing as asylum seekers, who Border Patrol sources reveal easily made it through federal vetting procedures because the South American country doesn’t readily share information on its citizens with the US.
With little to no information to shed light on the Venezuelans’ gang ties, federal authorities released unknown numbers of TdA gangbangers into the US.
Now, several recent instances of high-profile TdA crimes have been documented, showing the gang’s increased foothold in the US, including a recent law enforcement raid on a San Antonio apartment complex taken over by gangbangers.
During the bust, cops made 20 arrests, four of which were confirmed TdA members — including one person who is an “enforcer,” San Antonio Police Chief Chief McManus said.
Tren de Aragua also took over the since-shuttered Gateway Hotel in the Texas border town of El Paso, where gangbangers engaged in sex trafficking and violent fights, leading to nearly 700 calls to cops.
Also in El Paso, more than 100 suspected TdA members were arrested for participating in the wild migrant riot captured exclusively by The Post in March.
The two illegal Venezuelan migrants accused of killing 12-year-old Houston girl Jocelyn Nungaray are also suspected TdA members and there is an active investigation over their possible ties to the prison gang.
A Dallas resident was pistol-whipped and threatened with death by a TdA-led group of migrants who broke into her home and stole her valuables.
Nationally, TdA has spread its tentacles, rearing its ugly head in New York, Arizona, Colorado, Nevada, Illinois, California, Wisconsin, Florida, Georgia and New Jersey, where similar instances of violent migrant crimes have occurred.
