U.S. Representative Mark Green (R-TN-07), who chairs the House Homeland Security Committee, said the presence of the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua in Tennessee is a “consequence” of the Biden-Harris administration’s “destructive open-borders policies.”
Last week, the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation (TBI) revealed that the violent Venezuelan gang is present in all of the state’s “major cities,” and warned the group is engaged in human trafficking, organized retail theft, and drug trafficking nationwide.
Tren de Aragua, the largest criminal organization in Venezuela, is the same gang that allegedly took over an apartment complex in Colorado
“This violent and sadistic gang, Tren de Aragua, is now operating in Tennessee and destabilizing our communities. This is the consequence of President Biden, Vice President Harris, and now-impeached DHS Secretary Mayorkas’ destructive open-borders policies,” Green said in a statement on Friday.
Green added that while he “commends” the TBI for publicly “sounding the alarm” about the gang’s presence in Tennessee, the Volunteer State and the rest of the nation “shouldn’t be forced to live in fear of heinous gangs because of this administration’s inability to secure our borders.”
“From day one, the Biden-Harris administration willfully and intentionally threw our borders wide open, gutted interior enforcement, and signaled to the criminal cartels and transnational gangs that they would be able to take advantage of our country with impunity,” Green explained.
“Thanks to their policies, thousands of Border Patrol agents have been pulled away from securing the border, and ICE agents have been prevented from removing many of those here illegally, including violent criminals,” Green added.
Looking to the future, Green said as chairman of the House Homeland Security Committee, he will “enthusiastically support the incoming Trump-Vance administration’s agenda to restore order at our borders, revamp interior enforcement, and bring safety back to our communities.”
President-elect Trump previously said he plans to invoke the Alien Enemies Act of 1798 to “target and dismantle every migrant criminal network operating on American soil.”
On Wednesday, TBI communications director Josh DeVine told The Tennessee Star that the first crime the Bureau connected to Tren de Aragua was a human trafficking case in 2023..
DeVine further told The Star that the gang is currently mostly engaged in human trafficking within Tennessee.
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Kaitlin Housler is a reporter at The Tennessee Star and The Star News Network. Follow Kaitlin on X / Twitter.
Photo “Rep. Mark Green” by Rep. Mark Green.
