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Red state hunts Tren de Aragua terrorists as judges light ‘credibility on fire’ fighting deportations: senator

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Red state hunts Tren de Aragua terrorists as judges light ‘credibility on fire’ fighting deportations: senator

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Tennessee officials are waging their own battle against members of a violent Venezuelan gang called Tren de Aragua as left-leaning officials push back on deportations of illegal immigrants, including gang members.

The Trump administration recently deported nearly 240 TdA members to El Salvador — an action that came despite U.S. District Judge James Boasberg’s order to halt deportations of illegal immigrants under a wartime powers act that President Donald Trump invoked on Friday.

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The Alien Enemies Act of 1798 allows the deportation of natives and citizens of an enemy nation without a hearing and has been invoked three times before, during the War of 1812, World War I and World War II.

“President Trump has the complete, constitutional authority to deport criminal illegal aliens, especially the members of Foreign Terrorist Organizations like Tren de Aragua,” Republican Tennessee Sen. Marsha Blackburn told Fox News Digital in a statement. “With his deportation of hundreds of gang members to El Salvador, the President is fully complying with judicial orders and upholding the rule of law.”

US PAID EL SALVADOR TO TAKE VENEZUELAN TREN DE ARAGUA MEMBERS: ‘PENNIES ON THE DOLLAR,’ WHITE HOUSE SAYS

Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., says “Tren de Aragua has plagued communities across the country with violent crime—including in Tennessee, where its members established a transnational sex trafficking ring that forced women into modern-day slavery.” (Tom Williams/CQ-Roll Call via Getty Images)

The senator added that TdA “has plagued communities across the country with violent crime—including in Tennessee, where its members established a transnational sex trafficking ring that forced women into modern-day slavery.”

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“These violent criminals have no right to be in our country, and activist judges who try to block their lawful deportation are lighting their credibility on fire.”

— Sen. Marsha Blackburn

An ICE officer and an agent with the Tennessee Bureau of Investigations prepare to transport an illegal alien from Venezuela with ties to the Tren da Aragua gang. She was arrested for her role in an illegal commercial sex and sex-trafficking enterprise out of Nashville motels from July 2022 through March 2024. (ICE)

The Department of State designated TdA as a foreign terrorist organization on Feb. 20. The gang has thousands of members, many of whom the Trump administration says have unlawfully infiltrated the United States from South and Central America and are “conducting irregular warfare and undertaking hostile actions against the United States,” in multiple states, with strongholds in places like Colorado and New York.

The White House on Sunday said TdA operates in conjunction with Cártel de los Soles, a Venezuelan-based, narco-terrorism gang sponsored by the Nicolás Maduro regime. The gang is known for its brutal crimes, including murders, kidnappings, extortion, human and drug trafficking. TdA’s mass migration to the United States will further the Maduro regime’s objectives of harming U.S. citizens and undermining public safety, according to the White House.

Map of Tren de Aragua presence in the United States as of December 2024. (Fox News Digital)

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TdA grew significantly while Tareck El Aissami served as governor of Aragua between 2012 and 2017, when El Aissami was appointed as vice president of Venezuela.

EL SALVADOR PRESIDENT RIPS FBI TRUMP RAID, QUESTIONS WHAT US GOV’T WOULD SAY IF HIS POLICE TARGETED CANDIDATES

Former DEA agent Wesley Tabor was stationed in Venezuela from 2010 until almost 2013 and was the only agent during that time to meet with El Aissami.

“What you’re really looking at is the result of a permissive environment,” former DEA agent Wesley Tabor said. “And so … when TdA first started coming into the United States, they were kind of collating into the big cities. You got Chicago, you got New York, you got El Paso, you got some other cities. But eventually what happened is: when the pressure was turned on after committing crimes or they had to flee for whatever reason, they were looking for a quieter area to go to.”

“[T]hey were looking for a quieter area to go to.”

— Wesley Tabor, former DEA agent

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In these “quieter” states and cities, TdA members then establish networks with family members and other connections, bringing other TdA members with them to those places.

TdA is different from other gangs like MS-13 in the sense that members do not have specific identifiers like tattoos linking them to the gang, and they commit a variety of crimes that may go undetected as being gang-related: everything from kidnapping to murder to sexual assault, Tabor explained.

TREN DE ARAGUA CRACKDOWN: 8 VENEZUELAN GANG MEMBERS INDICTED FOR SEX TRAFFICKING

Nicolas Maduro (Fox Nation)

Tabor added that the Maduro regime sent groups of people from Venezuelan prisons and insane asylums through Central America and into the United States with the purpose of destroying communities.

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“Many of these Venezuelan criminals … were sent here for a purpose from Venezuela, sent by the Maduro regime.”

— Wesley Tabor, former DEA agent

“And then, low and behold, you find out that many of them, not all of them, but many of them, are going to be Tren de Aragua members,” he said. “And then you start seeing these sporadic reportings becoming more and more frequent. And that just snowballs.”

On Feb. 14, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) along with Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) announced the arrests of eight TdA members in Tennessee, who are accused of trafficking women and girls across the border as part of a transnational commercial sex enterprise in Nashville.

‘ESCALATING THREAT’: RISE OF VENEZUELAN STREET GANG SPARKS ALARM THROUGHOUT US

Two of eight TdA members accused of organizing a sex trafficking ring in Nashville (TBI)

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The eight defendants allegedly operated an illegal commercial sex and sex trafficking enterprise out of Nashville motels between July 2022 and March 2024, ICE said in a press release, citing court documents.

“The success of this operation to stop Tren da Aragua operating in our communities is a significant step forward in our ongoing battle against human trafficking and transnational organized crime,” ICE Homeland Security Investigations Nashville Special Agent in Charge Rana Saoud said in a Feb. 14 statement. “This investigation exemplifies the importance of collaboration among local, state, and federal agencies in ending these crimes in our communities. Human exploitation leaves a trail of suffering in its wake.”

TBI Director David Rausch said the state agency would not “allow TdA – or any criminal organization – to get a stronghold in Tennessee.”

VIOLENT VENEZUELAN GANG TREN DE ARAGUA TERRORIZING AMERICANS IN AT LEAST 19 STATES

ICE officers get fingerprints on one of the known or suspected associates of the Venezuelan Tren da Aragua gang after a successful joint operation to dismantle an illegal commercial sex and sex trafficking enterprise out of Nashville motels from July 2022 through March 2024. (ICE)

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“We are thankful for our local, state, and federal partners who joined us in investigating this case, and we stand prepared to continue aggressively investigating human trafficking in our state, holding traffickers and buyers accountable and helping victims take their first steps toward becoming survivors,” he said.

U.S. Attorney for the Middle District of Tennessee Robert E. McGuire said officials “are coming after transnational criminal organizations like TdA, but this case shows that we will also do whatever it takes to stop those who would traffic women and girls no matter who is behind their suffering.”

Last year, Tennessee officials made two other significant TdA arrests.

WHO IS TREN DE ARAGUA? VICIOUS VENEZUELAN GANG ‘FOLLOWING IN THE PATH OF MS-13’ IN AMERICA

Four suspects, including a Tren de Aragua member, have been arrested in Hamilton County, Tennessee, in a sex-trafficking sting. (Hamilton County/Valerie Schremp Hahn/St. Louis Post-Dispatch/Tribune News Service)

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On Nov. 19, 2024, ICE ERO officials arrested Luis Alejandro Ruiz-Godoy, who was wanted on outstanding international warrants, a spokesperson with the Memphis Police Department said. Days later FBI officials arrested four individuals, including one Tren de Aragua member, in a Chattanooga sex trafficking sting.

Tennessee’s Human Trafficking Task Force obtained information that led them to a hotel in Hamilton County, where law enforcement encountered the four suspects and confirmed that they were part of a human sex trafficking operation.

Tabor said it is “100%” more difficult for law enforcement from smaller cities and states that do not typically deal with gangs like TdA to identify and capture its members than in larger cities like New York, Chicago and Houston.

“What you’re seeing is these gangs and associated criminals were capitalizing on the fact that many of these small-town sheriffs’ offices and metropolitan police departments had no clue who they were,” the former DEA agent explained. “They had no idea how to get help to find out who these people were because the federal government didn’t care. And all that has changed since Trump came in.”

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By invoking the Foreign Enemies Act, the administration has made it easier to cut “through a lot of red tape” to detain TdA members, Tabor said.

Fox News Digital’s Emma Colton and Alexandra Koch contributed to this report. 

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Southeast

Charlotte residents say they feel less safe as city faces second transit stabbing

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Charlotte residents say they feel less safe as city faces second transit stabbing

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Two in three Charlotte, North Carolina, residents say they feel less safe today than they did a year ago, according to a recent survey, as the city reels from two train stabbings.

More than 930 people responded to a survey that the Queen City recently completed before hiring its new police chief, Stella Patterson. Residents overwhelmingly said they want a proactive police force, not a reactive one, with 66% saying they feel less safe.

The results come as Charlotte contends with another stabbing on its light rail system, months after the stabbing of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska.

On Friday, Charlotte-Mecklenburg Police Department (CMPD) officers responded to a call regarding assault with a deadly weapon. When they arrived, they found the victim, identified as Kenyon Kareem-Shemar Dobie, with a stab wound, according to warrants.

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Oscar Solorzano, 33, was arrested in connection to a stabbing on a Charlotte, North Carolina light rail. (Mecklenburg County Jail)

NORTH CAROLINA DEMOCRATS FALL SILENT AFTER ICE ARRESTS DOZENS WITH VIOLENT RECORDS

Oscar Gerardo Solorzano-Garcia, 33, of Honduras, was arrested after the stabbing and charged with attempted first-degree murder, assault with a deadly weapon with serious injury, breaking/entering a motor vehicle, carrying a concealed weapon and intoxicated/disruptive behavior, according to multiple Department of Homeland Security (DHS) sources and arrest warrants obtained by Fox News Digital. 

On Monday morning, Solorzano appeared in court, where he was denied bond. The 33-year-old appeared via Zoom in an orange jumpsuit where he was charged. Authorities revealed that Solorzano, prior to the Dec. 5 attack, was banned by Charlotte Area Transit System (CATS).

CMPD noted Dobie was in critical but stable condition when he was taken to a hospital.

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The victim told WRAL News that he saw Solorzano yelling at an older woman before Solorzano handed his bike to another passenger and said: “I’m about to show you who I really am.”

“I wasn’t trying to be a macho man,” Dobie said in a TikTok post from his hospital room. “But what I won’t allow is you to attack random people for no reason, especially the elderly.”

Dobie said he jumped up and told Solorzano to leave everyone alone. He said Solarzano then grabbed his hands and stabbed him as he tried to grab him back.

Police in North Carolina have charged a 33-year-old man from Honduras with critically injuring another person in a stabbing on a Charlotte commuter train, just a few months after a Ukrainian refugee was murdered. (WJZY)

According to court documents, reviewed by Fox News Digital, Solorzano broke into a railroad car “with the intent to commit a felony,” while carrying a large fixed-blade knife.

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While intoxicated, he challenged Dobie to a fight, cursing and shouting at others using “unintelligible and slurred words,” according to court documents.

He was booted from the country by the Trump administration in March 2018 on a deportation order and reentered illegally during the Biden administration at the Texas border in March 2021, DHS sources said.

WATCH: Migrant who was deported twice accused of Charlotte light rail stabbing

CHARLOTTE MAN CHARGED WITH IRYNA ZARUTSKA’S KILLING COULD FACE DEATH PENALTY

Solorzano was deported a second time by the Biden administration and reentered illegally as a got-away at an unknown time and location.

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Solorzano has a prior conviction for robbery in the U.S. and prior arrests for aggravated battery with a deadly weapon, resisting arrest and false ID, DHS sources said.

Court records indicate he had known aliases, including Solorzano-Garcia, Oscar Herardo and Kevin Garcia.

Press secretary Karoline Leavitt speaks alongside a photo of Ukrainian refugee Iryna Zarutska, who was allegedly killed by Decarlos Brown Jr., on a light rail train in Charlotte, North Carolina, at the White House, Sept. 9, 2025. (Saul Loeb/AFP via Getty Images)

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The stabbing attack comes months after Zarutska, 23, was fatally stabbed on a LYNX Blue Line light rail while on her way home from work from a local pizzeria shop.

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Decarlos Brown Jr., 34, who is accused of killing Zarutska, was charged with violence against a railroad carrier and mass transportation system resulting in death, a capital offense under federal law.

Brown had a history of violent crime, including assaults and robberies, and had also been diagnosed with schizophrenia. Yet he was still free and walking the streets.

Fox News Digital has reached out to the city of Charlotte and the CMPD for comment.

Fox News Digital’s Alexander Koch and Fox News’ Bill Melugin and Chelsea Torres contributed to this report.

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Murdaugh trial court clerk pleads guilty to showing sealed crime scene photos to photographer

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Murdaugh trial court clerk pleads guilty to showing sealed crime scene photos to photographer

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A former South Carolina court clerk pleaded guilty Monday in connection with showing sealed court exhibits related to the murder trial of disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh to a photographer and lying about it in court.

Mary Rebecca “Becky” Hill, who served as the court clerk in Colleton County, pleaded guilty to four charges — obstruction of justice and perjury for showing a reporter photographs that were sealed court exhibits and then lying about it, plus two counts of misconduct in office for taking bonuses and promoting a book she wrote on the trial through her public office. 

“There is no excuse for the mistakes I made. I’m ashamed of them and will carry that shame the rest of my life,” Hill said in a statement read to the court.

She was sentenced to three years of probation.

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ALEX MURDAUGH’S MONEY MAN PAYS THE PRICE AFTER ADMITTING ROLE IN MILLION-DOLLAR CRIME SCHEME

Colleton County Clerk of Court Rebecca Hill is sworn in before taking the stand to testify during the Alex Murdaugh jury-tampering hearing at the Richland County Judicial Center, Monday, Jan. 29, 2024, in Columbia, S.C. (AP)

Her sentence would have been much harsher had evidence surfaced that she tampered with the murder trial, Judge Heath Taylor told Hill. 

During Murdaugjh’s murder trial, Hill was responsible for taking care of the jury, overseeing exhibits and assisting the judge. Murdaugh was eventually convicted of murdering his wife and son after a six-week trial, which drew nationwide attention.

Murdaugh’s lawyers said Hill tried to influence jurors to vote guilty and that she was biased against Murdaugh because of her book.

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ALEX MURDAUGH SLAMS NEW TRUE CRIME SERIES DEPICTING FAMILY’S DOUBLE-MURDER: ‘MISLEADING PORTRAYALS’

Former Colleton County Clerk of Court Mary Rebecca “Becky” Hill smiles after pleading guilty on Monday, Dec. 8, 2025, in St. Matthews, S.C. Hill pleaded guilty Monday to showing sealed exhibits from Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial and other charges. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Solicitor Rick Hubbard told the judge that a journalist informed investigators that Hill showed graphic crime scene photos to several media members.

He did not name the journalist.

The photos were posted online, and the metadata from the images matched a time when Hill’s courthouse key card indicated she was inside the locked room where the photos were kept, Hubbard said.

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Former Colleton County Clerk of Court Mary Rebecca “Becky” Hill is sworn in during a court hearing on Monday in St. Matthews, S.C. (AP Photo/Jeffrey Collins)

Hill resigned in March 2024. One of the charges against her stemmed from money prosecutors said she took for herself. She brought a check to court on Monday to repay nearly $10,000.

Journalist Neil Gordon who worked with Hill on “Behind the Doors of Justice: The Murdaugh Murders” and previously accused her of plagiarism, commented on Hill’s plea to Fox News Digital.

Former Colleton County Clerk of Court Mary Rebecca “Becky” Hill pleaded guilty Monday to showing sealed exhibits from disgraced attorney Alex Murdaugh’s murder trial and other charges. (Fox Nation/ Tracy Glantz/The State via AP, Pool)

“I appreciate seeing Becky step up and take responsibility for her actions, including the charge of misconduct in office, as it was directly related to the book I co-authored with her,” he said in a statement. “The specific instance was her decision to arrange a “Facebook Live” from her clerk’s office with the Colleton County Chamber of Commerce solely to promote our book.”

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“The fact that it occurred during the workday showed boldness, poor judgement, and frankly ignorance of the oath she took as an elected official.,” he added. “Sadly, poor judgement around our book had been a pattern for Becky, as we later learned she plagiarized its preface.”

Meanwhile, Murdaugh is also serving a prison sentence for stealing money from his family’s law firm and client settlements.

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Fox News Digital has reached out to Murdaugh’s attorney.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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Florida designates Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations, DeSantis says

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Florida designates Muslim Brotherhood and CAIR as foreign terrorist organizations, DeSantis says

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Florida is designating the Muslim Brotherhood and the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) as foreign terrorist organizations, Gov. Ron DeSantis said Monday. 

The move mirrors a similar action taken by Texas in which Gov. Greg Abbott designated the CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood as foreign terrorist and transnational criminal organizations.

“Florida agencies are hereby directed to undertake all lawful measures to prevent unlawful activities by these organizations, including denying privileges or resources to anyone providing material support,” DeSantis wrote on X. 

TRUMP MOVES AGAINST MUSLIM BROTHERHOOD AS ISLAMIST GROUP SPREADS IN WEST

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Florida Gov. Ron DeSantissaid CAIR and the Muslim Brotherhood will be designated as foreign terrorist organizations.  (AP Photo/Rebecca Blackwell, File)

The governor’s order said the Muslim Brotherhood has long engaged in and supported violence, political assassinations and terror attacks on civilians with the intent of establishing a worldwide Islamic caliphate. 

It also said the group, as well as Hamas have active fundraising arms in the United States. 

SCATHING REPORT CALLS ON US TO LABEL ISLAMIST GROUP INFILTRATING ALL ASPECTS OF AMERICAN LIFE AS TERRORIST ORG

The order said CAIR, which was created to challenge stereotypes against Islam and Muslims, has had individuals associated with it that have been convicted of providing and aspiring to provide material support to foreign terrorist organizations. 

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In a post on X, Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier said: “Great news! Thanks for this important Executive Order, Governor. We are ready to support!”

A joint statement by CAIR and its Florida chapter said the DeSantis administration has prioritized serving their interest of the Israeli government over the people of the state. 

“He diverted millions in Florida taxpayer dollars to the Israeli government’s bonds. He threatened to shut down every Florida college’s Students for Justice in Palestine chapter, only to back off when CAIR sued him in federal court,” the statement said. “Like Greg Abbott in Texas, Ron DeSantis is an Israel First politician who wants to smear and silence Americans, especially American Muslims, critical of U.S. support for Israel’s war crimes. Governor DeSantis knows full well that CAIR-Florida is an American civil rights organization that has spent decades advancing free speech, religious freedom, and justice for all, including for the Palestinian people. That’s precisely why Governor DeSantis is targeting our civil rights group with this unconstitutional and defamatory proclamation.

“We look forward to defeating Governor DeSantis’ latest Israel First stunt in a court of law, where facts matter and conspiracy theories have no weight,” the groups added. “In the meantime, we encourage all Floridians and all Americans to speak up against this latest attempt to shred the Constitution for the benefit of a foreign government.”

Florida’s designation is at the state level. It doesn’t carry the legal force of a federal Foreign Terrorist Organization (FTO) listing, which only the U.S. State Department can issue. 

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In Texas, Muslim and interfaith leaders have demanded that Abott reverse his proclamation regarding CAIR. In a lawsuit against Texas over the governor’s declaration, CAIR argued that it violates both the U.S. Constitution and state law.

Texas Gov. Greg Abott designated CAIR, the Council on American-Islamic Relations, as a foreign terrorist organization.  (Getty Images)

The order violates its First Amendment rights and due-process protections, CAIR said, arguing that the state overstepped its authority because terrorism designations fall under federal, not state, jurisdiction.

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