The ruthless Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua is becoming a household name in the United States, rolling off the tongues of Republican politicians to attack the Biden administration’s border policies. Many Democrats, for their part, want you to brush off reports about gang activity in the U.S. as election-year exaggerations.
You should be wary of political rhetoric that paints all Venezuelan immigrants as violent criminals. An overwhelming majority of them aren’t. But Tren de Aragua, and a rival gang known as Anti-Tren, are real threats. While we don’t know the full scope of their presence and crimes in the U.S., law enforcement records indicate that their tendrils have reached into Texas and the Dallas area. A recent home invasion in Bluffview near Dallas Love Field underscores why local police agencies must be on high alert, working together with federal partners to counteract this gang threat before its roots grow deeper in North Texas.
On Sept. 21, four men cornered a woman as she pulled into her garage and forced her into her home at gunpoint. According to a police affidavit, the woman was pistol-whipped and bound with her own clothing as the men ransacked her home. They made off with $75,000 in jewelry, designer purses, a bank card and the woman’s iPhone.
Authorities linked a fingerprint at the crime scene to a Venezuelan named Manuel Hernandez Hernandez, 28, who admitted being present during the robbery and implicated four other suspects, including the getaway driver, according to a police affidavit. Hernandez Hernandez told police the other suspects were in the Anti-Tren gang — a group made up of former Tren de Aragua members — and that they were involved in sex trafficking. The man told detectives he had known one of the suspects for 15 years and that they had grown up together.
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“Manuel Hernandez-Hernandez claimed that he was not a part of the gang but that the other members were known to engage in promoting prostitution and possessed firearms,” reads the Dallas police affidavit.
We’re troubled by what we’ve learned about the men’s records. According to federal officials, Hernandez Hernandez crossed the border without being inspected in March near El Paso, and in May, he pleaded guilty to driving while intoxicated and was sentenced to three days’ confinement. Officials didn’t say where.
Colleyville police arrested Hernandez Hernandez after a traffic stop Sept. 19, a couple of days before the Dallas robbery. Records show he was cited for five low-level misdemeanors, including possession of drug paraphernalia and driving without a license, and released from jail the next day. A spokeswoman for Colleyville police told us there was no immigration detainer on Hernandez Hernandez at the time of his release.
An immigration detainer is a notice that tells local officials that federal authorities plan to take custody of a suspect who is not a U.S. citizen and is eligible for deportation.
Another suspect, Carlos Alberto Martinez Silva, arrived in July at a U.S. port of entry in California. He was admitted into the country pending immigration proceedings, according to Immigration and Customs Enforcement officials.
Two other robbery suspects — Yean Torrealba Sanabria and Wilmer Colmenares Gonzalez — encountered Border Patrol agents in 2023 near Eagle Pass and Brownsville, respectively. Both were released pending immigration court hearings in Dallas in January 2025.
We don’t know how the fifth suspect, Jarlen Flores Guana, made his way into the U.S. He and the four other robbery suspects now have immigration detainers, according to ICE and county records.
Our editorial board reached out to the Dallas Police Department to ask about the potential presence of Venezuelan gangs. The department declined our interview request.
We also reached out to the FBI office in Dallas. The agency described in broad terms its efforts to investigate gangs. It said in a statement that it pursues violent gangs with its local and state partners through its Violent Gang Safe Streets Task Force and that it works closely with the community to develop sources and generate leads.
It’s no surprise that potential gang members have filtered through the southern border. A recent federal audit found that the Department of Homeland Security’s technology and procedures were “not fully effective” in screening and vetting asylum applicants. The agency fails to rescreen asylum-seekers for potential threats during the months and years that it takes to adjudicate hundreds of thousands of asylum applications.
This problem is magnified when dealing with arrivals from Venezuela, a country with which the U.S. has no diplomatic ties or data-sharing agreements.
Local police can’t control immigration authorities’ vetting protocols, but they can be proactive about sharing intelligence with other law enforcement agencies and federal partners, especially when dealing with crimes like sex trafficking that often cross city and state boundaries.
Earlier this year, three Venezuelan citizens with ties to Tren de Aragua were charged in connection to a sex trafficking operation. According to a federal criminal complaint, a victim told Border Patrol agents in El Paso that a gang member paid for her to be smuggled into the U.S. and was forcing her to pay off her debt through prostitution. The woman said the gang had “stash houses” in Texas, Louisiana, Virginia, New Jersey and Florida and that up to 30 women were being trafficked. According to the complaint, local authorities searched an apartment in Baton Rouge after a Spanish-speaking woman called to say she was being trafficked. Officers found money, condoms and ledger books.
“The ledger books appeared to document how much money each victim made each day and how much of their ‘debt’ remained,” the federal complaint states.
Bianca Davis, CEO of New Friends New Life, a Dallas nonprofit that helps trafficking victims, told us that the overwhelming majority of people it helps are locals, not immigrants. She said she expects the number of immigrants the organization helps will grow as it does more outreach and immigrant communities become more established.
Davis emphasized that sex trafficking can be subtle and doesn’t require victims to cross borders or even ZIP codes.
It’s important to see the big picture here and reject fearmongering that blames undocumented immigrants for all the crime in our neighborhoods and cities. At the same time, our police and state and federal agencies must remain vigilant about international criminal groups and proactively share information with one another that can help our communities stave off threats.
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