An MS-13 gang member wanted for crimes by the El Salvadoran government was one of three illegal aliens recently arrested by Homeland Security Investigations (HSI) agents based in Nashville, the federal law enforcement agency confirmed Monday.
HSI Nashville, which covers the states of Tennessee and Kentucky, announced in a social media post that the three criminal aliens arrested by Bowling Green federal agents were from El Salvador, one of whom was a confirmed MS-13 gang member wanted in El Salvador for extortion.
3 criminal aliens from El Salvador were arrested by @HSI_Nashville HSI Bowling Green agents. One is a documented MS-13 gang member wanted by the El Sal government for extortion & another has a criminal state arrest warrant out of the Warrant County Sheriff’s Office (Kentucky)!
— HSI Nashville (@HSI_Nashville) August 11, 2025
Another one of the three illegal aliens recently arrested by federal agents had a criminal state arrest warrant out of the Warrant County Sheriff’s Office in Kentucky, HSI said.
In April, HSI Nashville arrested another illegal alien from El Salvador who was a leader associated with the Thompson Place Locos Salvatruchas Nashville-based MS-13 clique and had criminal convictions for racketeering, firearms, and homicide.
The Thompson Place Locos Salvatrucha clique has operated in Nashville since at least 2014, according to the U.S. Department of Justice.
In February, the U.S. State Department classified MS-13 and other international cartels and transnational organizations, including Tren de Aragua, as Foreign Terrorist Organizations (FTOs) and Specially Designated Global Terrorists (SDGTs).
HSI Nashville’s recent arrests of the three criminal aliens comes months after a successful joint operation conducted in Nashville by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and the Tennessee Highway Patrol concluded in the arrests of 196 criminal illegal aliens – 95 of whom were aliens with prior criminal convictions and pending criminal charges and 31 who had reentered the U.S. illegally after previously being deported.
Border czar Tom Homan, responding to pushback from Nashville city officials — including Mayor Freddie O’Connell, who implemented an early warning system to help aliens evade federal immigration enforcement, which ultimately resulted in the doxxing of federal agents — has since assured that immigration enforcement efforts will “not stop” ICE from carrying out operations to remove illegal aliens in Nashville.
U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) Secretary Kristi Noem echoed Homan’s sentiment during a press conference held in Nashville last month meant to highlight the “worst of the worst” illegal aliens arrested by DHS in Tennessee so far under the Trump administration.
“[W]e’re going to continue to enforce the law here in Nashville,” Noem said at the time.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Deport ALL illegals.