A police chief in a small town in North Dakota says the federal government abandoned him and his officers when members of the suspected Tren de Aragua came to town.
North Dakota is the latest state to report that a brutal Venezuelan migrant gang is operating there after 25-year-old alleged member Henry Theis was arrested. was busted last month For hacking an ATM in West Fargo and making $100,000 out of it, according to authorities.
And he is not the only suspected TDA member to be identified in the town of 40,000.
West Fargo Police Chief Pete Nielsen told The Post that his department is doing its best to deal with the threat of such foreign gang activity — but its resources are limited, a situation that will become more “difficult” without federal help. ” and has been made “disappointing”.
“If you don’t have federal assistance on these crimes that cross different state lines, it’s difficult for local police to enforce any of this,” he said.
“We don’t have a lot of federal partners coming knocking on our door to help with this crime,” Nielsen said of the latest suspicious TDA bust.
The top police official said his officers are meanwhile “monitoring” the “activity” of several other suspected Tren de Aragua members in the area.
“As the police chief of this community, I think I would like to make sure that anyone who commits a crime in the community is held accountable for that action. As local officers, we want to make sure we have the ability to remove these people from the community who have committed crimes,” Nielsen said.
Homeland Security sources told The Post that he crossed the border illegally in El Paso, Texas, last year and was released into the U.S. by border agents with a future court date.
Then in August 2024, Theis was arrested in Louisville, Texas for DWI, but was later released for an undisclosed reason.
He was arrested again on November 1 for an ATM crime – when he was allegedly caught with $24,000 in bank cash and a facemask and black latex gloves in his car.
“I think it’s concerning to any police chief in any community across the United States when these individuals are here illegally,” Nielsen said. “Number two, they are being arrested for a crime. “And then we drop (them) back into a country where they shouldn’t even be.”
ICE recently placed a detainer in the Cass County Jail to take custody of Theis.
The bust of the suspect in North Dakota – one of the most remote and least populated states – now confirms TDA infiltration in 17 states.
Nielsen said he hopes the situation will change once President-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. The police chief said that if he were asked to help with mass deportations, which Trump has promised, he would do everything possible to assist.
“I think if there was an order from Tom Homan to assist the federal government in, you know, illegally arresting people within communities, we would consider that order, and we would They would assist the federal government on anything they needed us to do,” he said, referring to Trump’s border ruling.
(TagstoTranslate)US news(T)illegal immigrants(T)North Dakota(T)Tren de Aragua(T)US border(T)Venezuela
