The governor of Texas, Greg Abbott, announced this week that the state will launch a campaign to dismantle a violent Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, operating within the Lone Star State, designating the group as a terrorist organization.

“The recent entry and expansion of the vicious Venezuelan gang, Tren de Aragua, is a dangerous and deadly problem facing our state and nation,” Mr. Abbott said during a press conference at Houston with state officials, including the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety. “To address this looming threat, I have ordered the Texas Department of Public Safety to launch a statewide operation… I am also officially designating Tren de Aragua as a foreign terrorist organization.”

“We will not let them use Texas as a base of operations to terrorize our citizens. They have a target on their back, and we are going after them. Texas is the wrong state for them to try to do business in,” Mr. Abbott said.

Mr. Abbott announced that he would direct the Texas Department of Public Safety to elevate the gang to a “Tier 1” and create a specific strike team to identify and round up members operating within the state. The terrorist designation will allow state authorities to use the courts to help curb the criminal operations of gang members, including civil asset forfeiture to seize property and enhancement of criminal penalties when accused gang members face prosecution.

“Tren de Aragua gangsters are like cockroaches,” the Texas DPS Director, Steve McCraw, said. “They multiply quickly; small intrusions into communities become infestations if not aggressively pursued.” 

“These Venezuelan thugs are highly combative, violent, and certainly adaptable. They’re always involved in situations that first start with human smuggling. Then they are involved in the extortion, kidnappings, rape, assaults, and sex trafficking of migrants,” Mr. McCraw said.

Mr. Abbott’s announcement comes on the heels of a lawsuit filed by the El Paso County Attorney’s office to shut down the Gateway Hotel at downtown El Paso, which was overrun with suspected members of the South American gang and became a hotspot of criminal activity in the Texas border town.

It was also alleged that more than 100 Tren de Aragua members were part of the flood of migrants in March that rushed towards border patrol agents after breaking down barriers placed at the crossing.

Last week, police at Aurora, Colorado, arrested ten Tren de Aragua members believed to be connected to a group that has been terrorizing an apartment complex in the Denver suburb.

The arrests come after a video of armed men storming through the complex went viral, leading to allegations that the gang had made it their base of operations. Officials with the Aurora Police Department maintain that it was an isolated incident and that the gang had not taken over the housing block.

“As for the perception and reality of public safety in Aurora, please understand that issues experienced at a select few properties do not apply to the city as a whole or large portions of it,” the Aurora police said in a statement. “TdA has not ‘taken over’ the city. The overstated claims fueled by social media and through select news organizations are simply not true.”