The Biden-Harris administration catches fewer international gang members in 2024 compared to previous years under the former president Donald TrumpAnd Nowsweek spoke with experts complex details with experts.
CBP data gives ventilation of the most notorious gangs that afflict the country as a wave of new crime unions that are wreaking havoc in the United States, including Tren of Aragua (ADD) and MS-13.
Border and immigration security policies are very protruding during the 2024 presidential election, as vice-president Kamala Harris go from end to end with her Republican The opponent of the November vote.
As part of the Biden-Harris administration, the apprehensions of gang members crossing the American borders have decreased, a contrast that struck with the figures observed during the mandate of former President Donald Trump. This could be attributed to the drop in level passages according to the president Joe BidenThe executive scanning action.
A peak in the apprehensions of the members of a gang was observed during the 2019 financial year, with 976 arrests, with a drop in 20102020 and the financial year 2010. But the following years experienced a constant drop in arrests.
In the United States, the federal government’s exercise begins on October 1 of the previous year and ends on September 30 of the following year.
In 2022, Border Patrol caught 751 gang members nationally; This fell to 639 in 2023 before hunting 478 in 2024.
Taylor Rogers, RNC spokesperson, said Nowsweek: “Kamala Harris’ policies are a dream come true for criminal illegal immigrants.
“President Trump will reverse this madness and will launch the largest deportation operation in history on the first day.”
Nowsweek contacted the White House to comment.
Mariano Sana, associate professor of sociology at Vanderbilt University, said Nowsweek: “I would not look for a political explanation for any trend there. The Biden administration has had different priorities from the Trump administration with regard to asylum seekers, but not with regard to dangerous people.
“We can see that the number of apprehensions of border crossroads affiliated with gangs has dropped considerably during the pandemic 2020 and 2021. (Since the races from October 1 to September 30, the 2020 exercise were entirely under Trump and that nearly three quarters of Fy 2021 were under Biden.)
“The pandemic has depressed all kinds of activities, including border crossings in general, so that the decline had to be the result of the first possibility: border passages decreased throughout the period 2017-2024 because these figures specifically concern individuals affiliated with gangs.”
Under President Joe Biden, there have been changes in border security and immigration policies compared to the harder approach to the Trump administration.
The executive decrees of Biden, which led to the fall in border passages, are a factor influencing the drop in apprehensions of gang members.
Sana said: “A downward trend in border meetings and apprehensions (of any type of individual, including gangs) indicates one of the two things: that crossings by these individuals decrease, or that CBP becomes less effective to understand those it should understand.”
Tren of Aragua
The table of the United States Border Patrol League shows a change in gang dynamics.
Emerging groups like ADD, a transnational criminal organization formed in a Venezuelan prison, gain ground in the criminal landscape of the activity of the gangs.
ADD has made the headlines across the country after a viral video has shown that armed gang members take an apartments complex in Aurora, Colorado.
Former President Donald Trump said the city was “invaded” by gang members; However, the allegation was refused by The mayor of Aurora Michael Coffman, who described him as “exaggerated”.
“I do not reject the concerns at all, but what happened at the start, what I can tell you now is that the gangs do not control one or the other complex,” said Coffman before Nowsweek.
The American border patrol reported substantial apprehensions among the members of the Gang TDA during the financial year 20123 (41) and the 2010 (23), indicating an increase in its activity in the United States
The group focuses on trafficking in human beings and other abuses targeting vulnerable migrants. The gang is accused of Table of women and girls for sexual exploitation.
According to a report of TelemundoThe gang would have around 5,000 members and rakes in the annual profits between $ 10 and $ 15 million.
Governor of Texas Greg Abbott offers a bonus of $ 5,000 for information that leads to the arrest of notorious Venezuelan gang members.
Abbott signed a proclamation Designating the gang as a foreign terrorist organization on September 16.
Paisas
Paisas, a gang that operates mainly in American federal prisons, remains a significant threat, with 136 arrests during the year 2024.
Sana said: “They are necessarily a little volatile due to changes in the relevance / primacy of specific gangs, for example, MS-13 are falling and the paisas increase, and because they are really small numbers in the large population of border crossroads (less than 0.05%).
“This means that if in a specific year, a specific gang finds a more effective method of uncoured crossing (perhaps at a different time on the border of 2,000 miles), the number of apprehensions can drop a lot, but we are still talking, say, 100 or 200 people.
“A downward trend in this statistic, once again, must be the result of less crossing or, for one reason or another, the border patrol has struggled to meet them. In short, I think it is a question of application of the law, not a question of immigration policy.”
Initially trained as a group without vaguely structuring offering protection in prison, they have become a more organized entity.
Apart from the prisons, paisas were also linked to drug trafficking activities.
Some reports suggest that they initially trained as a rural militia in Colombia, but later became independent, managing local drug roads and selling larger criminal organizations such as Zetas.
The gang was also involved in criminal activities such as smuggling and violent crimes in the United States
The group has taken on importance, especially in the regions near the American-Mexican border, where their members were apprehended for illegal entry into the country or other criminal offenses.
Earlier this year, in March, agents arrested two members of the Gang Paisa to New Mexico who entered the country illegally.
MS-13
MS-13, otherwise known as Mara Salvatrucha, is a gang mainly composed of Salvadoran which tries to protect its power, its territory and its profits by removal, extortion and murder.
They are one of the most notable and violent criminal gangs in the world. Originally from the 80s in Los Angeles, California, by refugees who fled civil conflicts in Salvador, the gang has since expanded its influence through the United States
He became a transnational gang as members of the MS-13 who were expelled from the United States to Central America helped establish gang ties and spread the cultivation of American gangs abroad.
The structure of MS-13 is largely made up of freely organized, or “click” cells, which control a specific territory.
Historically, MS-13 remains the most frequently understood gang, with a notable peak during the 2019 financial year (464 apprehensions) before moving to 64 during the 2010 financial year. This suggests significant measures to apply the law designed to dismantle the group and a change in MS-13 activities over time.
The MS-13 was formed by Salvadoral Immigrants who fled to the United States in the 1980s during the Salvadorian civil war.
According to a previous declaration by the Ministry of JusticeThe fight against MS-13 was an absolute priority “for the Doj.
This indicates why there was a drop in apprehensions among gang members in 2024.
There was a series of macabre murders and violent crimes committed by the gang.
In 2021, two members of Gangs MS-13 recognized as guilty of having murdered a teenager in what was described as a satanic ritual in 2017 was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
A MS-13 gang nickname “Little Devil” was sentenced to 50 years in prison After attracting a group of men to a Long Island park where they were hacked to death with machetes.
Sureños
During the 2010 financial year, border agents apprehended 52 gang members.
The Sureños were created in the 1960s in South California as part of a Mexican mafia group.
A rivalry was formed between two major gang factions, the Sureños in southern California and the Norteños in northern California.
The Mexican mafia exerts an important power and influence in the Sureños. They provide the prison network and higher leadership, demanding loyalty and homage of the Sureño gangs in exchange for protection and influence in the penitentiary system.
The rivalry between Sureños and Norteños is rooted in geographic and cultural tensions. While the Norteños claim a territory north of Bakersfield, California, the Sureños operate mainly in southern California and maintain a bastion in Los Angeles.
They are not a unique and unified gang. Rather, they consist of hundreds of smaller street gangs, or “clicks”, which operate independently but share common symbols, culture and allegiance to the Mexican mafia.
This led to cases of intestine struggles between different factions of the gang.
18th street
The Gang 18th Street, also known as Barrio 18, is one of the biggest and violent street gangs in the world.
Initially trained in Los Angeles, California, the gang has become a transnational criminal organization with tens of thousands of members distributed in the United States, Mexico and Central America.
The 18th Street Gang was founded in Los Angeles in the 1960s, initially as a small gang composed mainly of young Mexicans-Americans. Its name comes from the 18th street in the Rampart district of Los Angeles, where the gang was originally based.
Unlike many other Latinos gangs at the time, the 18th street gang was remarkable for accepting members of various horizons, including central Americans, African-Americans and Asians. This allowed the gang to develop its members.
As the 2024 elections approaches, the United States remains at a crossroads in the way it manages the crime linked to gangs. With a change in the dynamics of the gangs, the next administration will face the pressure not only to secure borders but also dismantle evolution criminal unions.
