Justice Department officials said Wednesday they have arrested and charged nearly 350 people who are either members or associates of Tren de Aragua in the new administration, making good on President Trump’s promise to focus on the violent international gang.
Authorities also announced new murder cases in Texas and Illinois against eight people they said were TdA figures, including five charged with kidnapping a man and two children, then, when realizing the man couldn’t pay a random, executing him in front of the kids.
Acting Attorney General Todd Blanche said all eight were unauthorized migrants who came to the U.S. through the lax border policies of the Biden administration.
“None of these men should have been in this country,” he said. “These violent crimes and murders happened because under the Biden administration, border policies left our borders wide open.”
TdA is based in Venezuela but saw massive growth in the past decade, including gaining a foothold in the U.S.
Mr. Trump designated the gang a terrorist organization, which Mr. Blanche said allowed new federal powers to be employed against it.
In the two cases announced Wednesday, authorities have not brought terrorism charges, though the attorney general said those are often added on as cases develop.
He said the 2024 Texas shooting involved five men who kidnapped and zip-tied a man, his 13-year-old daughter and 12-year-old nephew outside Dallas. They planned to charge money for their release.
Once they realized the man couldn’t pay, they ordered him to jump off a bridge. When he refused, he was shot “right between his eyes,” U.S. Attorney Ryan Raybould said.
In Chicago, three people have been charged with a homicide in May. Authorities said a man was abducted from near a park, taken to an abandoned building and shot dead.
Mr. Blanche said one of the defendants wore an ankle monitor. He was out on bail, which Mr. Blanche said was the result of Chicago’s sanctuary laws and weak bail laws.
During the 2024 campaign, Mr. Trump characterized TdA as a security threat to the U.S.
Some news outlets challenged that characterization, saying that the gang was a problem in other parts of Latin America but not numerous or organized enough to be a coherent threat in America.
Biden officials initially downplayed the gang’s growth but by 2024 had declared it a concern.
Mr. Trump countered that TdA’s growth was an invasion.
Early in his term, Mr. Trump authorized deportations of TdA suspects under the 1798 Alien Enemies Act. More than 200 were deported to El Salvador on March 15, 2025, where they were held in a Salvadoran terrorist prison under terms struck with the U.S.
El Salvador eventually sent them home to Venezuela, where many of them are demanding they be let back into the U.S. to argue they aren’t actually TdA members.
The Trump administration has also tied some of the boats struck by U.S. military forces in the Caribbean Sea to drug vessels linked to TdA.
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