By New York Post (U.S.) | Created at 2024-11-14 12:09:59 | Updated at 2024-11-22 04:16:40
1 week ago
Dozens of members of Tren de Aragua have been busted in Chicago in less than two years — and several have been allowed to walk free, according to records viewed by The Post.
The alleged crimes range from traffic violations to robberies and drugs, according to the records, which were obtained by America First Legal — a think tank founded by Stephen Miller and other veterans of the first Trump administration.
At least 30 suspected gang members have been arrested by the Chicago Police Department between January 2023 and September of this year, the records show.
As early as August 2023, the Illinois governor’s office had received alerts about gang activity, human trafficking and gunshots at and nearby Chicago migrant shelters, according to internal emails obtained through Freedom of Information Act filings.
In one email sent by an official with the Illinois Department of Human Services that month, state officials were advised to “look into issues of gang recruitment at shelters” housing migrants.
But TdA was still able to establish a foothold in Chicago.
One of the 30 suspected TdA members arrested in the Windy City was Venezuelan migrant Jonamer Barrios Moreno, 27, who came across the border illegally into Brownsville, Texas, in May 2023 but was released because he came in with his wife and son, Homeland Security sources told The Post.
He was arrested by Chicago police in May for a traffic offense and then again for domestic violence on Sept. 12, which was after an immigration judge had ordered him deported on June 4, according to sources.
ICE officers eventually arrested him again on Sept. 19.
Another suspected gang member, Venezuelan migrant Edwin Camejo, 26, was arrested in December 2023 for allegedly manufacturing and dealing drugs.
But, his charges were dropped in February, per sources. ICE officers, along with a federal anti-gang unit, arrested Camejo in April for suspected gang ties.
Camejo crossed the El Paso border with his wife and two kids in December 2022, according to sources. He was ordered deported in June.
Tren de Aragua began setting up shop in several sanctuary cities across the country, including New York, under the Biden-Harris administration, when members came across the border posing as migrants seeking asylum.
As a result of the “open border policies,” American communities descended into “havoc,” Gene Hamilton, who serves as America First Legal’s vice president and general counsel, said.
“The Biden-Harris Administration’s open-border policies have wreaked havoc on communities all
across the United States. The American people need protection, accountability from those
responsible for this mess, and an Administration that believes in advancing the interests of the
American people above all else,” said Hamilton.
In Chicago, TdA has been spilling into the already gang-ridden South Side of the city aggravating the local gangbangers.
The city shelled out almost half a billion dollars over the last two years to support more than 42,000 migrants.
“When the black gangs here get fed up with the illegalities and criminal activities of these migrants or non-citizens, the city of Chicago is going to go up in flames and there will be nothing the National Guard or the government can do about it when the bloodshed hits the streets. It’ll be blacks against migrants,” Tyrone Muhammad, 53, a former gang member who now runs a street patrol and violence prevention program called Ex-Cons for Community and Social Change, previously told The Post.
In September, Chicago police were called to an apartment complex on the South Side where where 32 armed Venezuelan migrants were allegedly flashing their weapons.
