Rep. Andy Biggs (R-AZ) suggested that the influence of Tren de Aragua was more “widespread” than is publicly known.
TdA is a Venezuelan gang that Secretary of State Marco Rubio labeled a terrorist organization. While on Fox News’s The Faulkner Focus, Biggs pointed out the recent report of the arrest of an alleged TdA member in the New Mexico home of Dona Ana County Magistrate Judge Joel Cano as proof that the gang is attempting to “terrorize” communities in the United States.
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“It’s one of the most bizarre things that you can imagine, right?” Biggs said. “When you think about how widespread the TdA is now in the United States, and we’re having to go back and clean up this mess. I’ll just tell you, this is the result ultimately of the Biden-Mayorkas program called the Cuba, Nicaragua, Haiti, Venezuela program, where we were facilitating up to 30,000 Venezuelans coming into our country, getting priority to come into our country every month. The result is a lot of Tren de Aragua guys came on in, and they’ve been terrorizing some of our communities ever since.”
Biggs was referring to the Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua, and Venezuela program, which allowed immigrants from these countries to bypass normal immigration protocols and enter the U.S. in an expedited fashion. Since President Donald Trump took office, the program has come to a halt, and the legal status of all those who entered via the program has been terminated.
The Trump administration recommends that those who came in via the program self-deport. As many as 530,000 qualified for the program and entered the U.S.
MAN ARRESTED IN COLOMBIA BECOMES FIRST ALLEGED TREN DE ARAGUA MEMBER TO FACE TERRORISM CHARGES
“These are violent, violent criminals, and they have a purpose,” Biggs said of Tren de Aragua. “That purpose is to destabilize the United States. In fact, their whole region, Peru, Ecuador, Colombia, Chile, they are trying to destabilize a region.”
A 24-year-old man was arrested in Colombia, becoming the first to face terrorism charges over his alleged affiliation with TdA. Colombian officials arrested Jose Enrique Martinez Flores on March 31 over the charges from the U.S. military, according to recently unsealed documents.