The Department of Homeland Security has identified more than 600 immigrants living in the United States with possible ties to notorious Venezuelan gangs, and local and federal law enforcement authorities have identified more than 600 immigrants with possible ties to notorious Venezuelan gangs, according to data obtained exclusively by NBC News. Concerns are growing.
Of the 600 immigrants DHS has deemed “persons of interest,” about 100 are confirmed gang members that the department has recommended be placed on the FBI’s watch list, officials said. Others may be discovered through investigation to be victims, witnesses, or gang members.
The Venezuelan gang known as Torren de Aragua (TDA) has a confirmed presence in 15 states and may have a presence in eight others, according to the data.
Homeland Security officials began collecting data on the TDA this spring after seeing a spike in crimes committed by gang members in New York and other cities across the country. New York City police officers involved in state sex trafficking and shooting two people at close range.
Since October 2022, U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement has arrested more than 100 people suspected of having ties to the TDA in connection with crimes, 75 of whom were arrested for immigration violations, according to the data. More than 20 people have been referred to federal prosecutors.
“DHS continues its efforts to crack down on gang members through rigorous screening and testing at the border, as well as retesting of certain individuals encountered in the past,” a DHS spokesperson said. Criminal charges will be filed or they will be detained and transported immediately. ”
Unlike most countries, Venezuela does not share criminal records or other information with U.S. authorities, making knowing the exact number of TDA members who have entered the United States a major challenge. This also makes it difficult for border officials to identify which Venezuelans who cross the border are TDA members.
Law enforcement experts say the 600 figure represents an information gap about the gang’s presence in the United States due to a lack of information provided by the Venezuelan government.
“That number is almost disturbingly low,” said Frank Figliuzzi, former FBI deputy director for counterintelligence and NBC News contributor. “It should be higher.”
But Figliuzzi said the TDA has not yet reached the size or sophistication of the large gangs that have existed in the United States for years.
“Most gang experts would say that the TDA has not yet shown signs of being a sophisticated, sophisticated organization in the United States,” he said.
MS-13 was born in Los Angeles but has grown into a transnational gang based in El Salvador and has about 10,000 members in the United States, according to the Department of Justice.
Peruvian police deported members of the Venezuelan gang Torren de Aragua in Lima on October 5, 2023. Cris Bouroncle / AFP via Getty Images file
The 18th Street gang, also from Central America, once had an estimated 30,000 to 50,000 members, according to the Justice Department, but that number has declined following a nationwide crackdown in El Salvador. did. 2024 Campaign Issue
The exact size of the TDA in the United States has been an issue in the presidential election campaign.
Former President Donald Trump claimed TDA members had “invaded and conquered” Colorado’s third-largest city, Aurora, a suburb of Denver.
But Aurora Police Chief and Republican Mayor Mike Coffman told NBC News last month that President Trump’s claims about gangs are grossly exaggerated.
Coffman said TDA members have not occupied the city of 400,000 people. Instead, some of the apartments, which have been neglected by their landlords for years, have crime problems.
“The issues with landlords actually predate the immigration crisis,” Coffman said.
And while President Trump has highlighted crimes committed by TDA members against Americans, DHS officials have said the majority of TDA victims are Venezuelan immigrants.
“They are preying on Venezuelans first and foremost,” the official said, noting that many recently arrived migrants had to pay the TDA to come to the United States. “We know they control human smuggling routes from Venezuela to Colombia to Panama. And as individuals move north through Mexico, they control many of these passageways.”
Of the more than 140 investigations ICE has initiated against TDA since October 2022, more than 20 have involved suspicions of human smuggling or human trafficking, according to the data. Most of these investigations are based on suspicion of involvement in organized crime.
Ammon Blair, a former Border Patrol agent who now advocates for stronger border security as a senior fellow at the Texas Public Policy Foundation, said the 600 number doesn’t mean DHS actually knows the entire number of TDA members in the United States. He said it shows that there is no such thing.
When Prime Minister Tony Blair retired from the Border Force in November, he said the force was not monitoring migrants crossing the border closely enough.
“If you look at the process, unfortunately, it’s just steam-baked,” he says. “The Border Patrol has created a conveyor belt, an automated system, to process them and release them into the United States as quickly as possible. We weren’t asking any questions.”
Of the more than 600 persons of interest in the TDA, ICE has fewer than 30 in its custody, according to data obtained by NBC News.
DHS officials said many of the 600 people are not in ICE custody because they are in the custody of other law enforcement agencies. Officials said ICE may not know their whereabouts, or they may not have a confirmed connection to the TDA or the crime, or that arresting them would interfere with an ongoing criminal investigation. He said that there is a possibility of this happening.
Venezuelans can be released if they commit a crime and serve their sentence. But since Venezuela refuses to return its nationals who moved to the United States, ICE must release them following a federal court ruling that prohibits holding immigrants indefinitely.
Another DHS official said that if an immigrant in ICE custody is deemed to be a true risk to public safety, ICE will not detain that person, even if it is by another law enforcement agency. He said he would find a way to continue.
