NYPD warns Tren de Aragua is trying to recruit kids in migrant shelter system

[Lauren Taylor]

The NYPD says a Venezuelan gang is trying to recruit children living in the city’s migrant shelters.

The Tren de Aragua gang has recruited an unknown number of young people who are in New York as they wait for a ruling on whether they can seek asylum in the U.S.

Police say they’ve accounted for more than 800 incidents this year of low-level crime by young, undocumented people. Those incidents include store robberies and snatching of items like jewelry and cell phones.

The Tren de Aragua gang now has a presence in 16 states according to a Department of Homeland Security memo obtained by the New York Post. They add that the group is participating in what the memo describes as “lower-level fraud and theft schemes.”

Straight Arrow News has not independently confirmed the New York Post’s reporting.

Tren de Aragua has drawn a lot of attention in recent months from top Republican leaders and right-leaning media outlets.

President-elect Donald Trump campaigned in Aurora, Colorado, after calling it a quote, “war zone,” after reports of the gang being active in the city. He has also embraced the name “Operation Aurora,” for parts of his plan to deport undocumented people.

Aurora mayor Mike Coffman responded to the criticism, saying in an October Facebook post that,, “The incidents were limited to several apartment complexes in this city of more than 400,000 residents.”

Police in New York said that despite the efforts to recruit at shelters, only a small portion of people who have recently migrated to the U.S. are committing the majority of the crimes the police hope to stop.

For Straight Arrow News, I’m Lauren Taylor.

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