A second wave of Venezuela’s worst criminals could soon cross the US border after being released from prison in their home country.
DailyMail.com was the first to report on the first wave of Venezuelan gangsters crossing the border and into US cities – including henchmen of dictator Nicolas Maduro and members of the infamous Tren de Aragua gang.
More jailed gang members and criminals are now being released, according to a government official.
“Since Friday, we have been carrying out an operation in the state of Miranda examining preventive centers and prisons,” Supreme Court Magistrate Edgar Gavidia said, adding that 100 prisoners had already been released.
“We look at everyone on a case-by-case basis and provide justice to those who have made a mistake at some point in their lives to expedite justice.”
In a telephone conversation with DailyMail.com on Monday, Miami immigration lawyer Rolando Vazquez warned: “These are murderers.”
Yare Prison, located in Miranda State, is controlled by gangs and is best known for a 2012 riot that left 25 inmates dead as rival gangsters fought for control of the prison
Prisoners receive military training in part of the El Rodeo prison near Caracas on July 1, 2016
Supreme Court Magistrate Edgar Gavidia (left) told Venezuelan media that 100 prisoners have already been released since Friday and cases are being reviewed to free more prisoners from Yare and El Rodeo prisons.
Prison inmates sat nearby as Venezuelan officials made the announcement that their cases were being released to determine who would be released
He compared them to Jose Ibarra, the Venezuelan man accused of killing Georgian student Laken Riley.
“These are career criminals… (Maduro) is only sending more of them.”
The infamous Yare prison and its sister facility Yare II, as well as a third prison called ‘El Rodeo’ allow prisoners to go slowly.
‘They’re villains. These are prisons where there are criminals and murderers,” Vazquez explained, adding: “These are not the prisons where the political opposition is housed.”
Venezuela is positioning the release as an initiative for criminal justice reform.
“Yare I is an ‘open prison’ where prison bosses known as ‘pranes’ rule,” he said InSightCrime.org.
On the outskirts of the capital Caracas, El Rodeo is also plagued by violence and corruption.
Two El Rodeo guards and a soldier were charged with corruption in 2011 after a riot at the facility left 22 dead after rival gangs unleashed chaos, leading to a months-long standoff with authorities. BBC reported.
Vazquez, a successful asylum lawyer with deep ties to the Venezuelan community and outspoken critic of the communist tyrant, was the first to raise the alarm about the release.
“Americans need to know they are coming to the border,” the lawyer added.
Bad actors from South America have already been linked to high-profile crimes in the United States, including the brutal beating of two officers in Times Square in January.
The suspects in the NYPD assaults, Kelvin Servita Arocha and Wilson Juarez, have been identified as members of Tren de Aragua.
Wilson Juarez, right, and Kelvin Servita-Arocha, left, have been charged in the January assault of the NYPD officer. Both men have ties to super gang Tren de Aragua
The FBI is concerned that El Tren de Aragua (pictured during a September prison raid) has ties to other criminal networks, such as the infamous MS-13.
In Miami, Tren de Aragua has already committed its first American murder, after member Yurwin Salazar was indicted for the murder of a retired Venezuelan police officer living in Florida.
Former police officer José Luis Sánchez Valera, 43, was lured to a Miami hotel by several women in late November. He was kidnapped in the parking lot and later murdered.
Former Venezuelan police officer Jose Luis Sanchez Valera, 43, who lived in Florida, was brutally murdered by Tren de Aragua gangster Yurwin Salazar, 23, (pictured) according to Miami officials
Yurwin Salazar, 23, a Venezuelan immigrant who has been identified as a gangster, has been charged with the murder.
Just north of Miami, in Palm Beach County, the local sheriff referenced Venezuelan gangs while holding a news conference about three Guatemalan migrants accused of sexually assaulting a woman.
“Here you have three illegals who should never have been in this country,” Sheriff Ric Bradshaw said during a news conference Wednesday.
“Our intelligence division, working very closely with the FBI, has also determined that the most dangerous gangs in the world are now in Miami from Venezuela. They make MS-13 look like schoolchildren.”
He further warned that the gangster could not be confined to South Florida and would end up across the country.
“We’re going to have to deal with this for the rest of my life and your life,” Thaddeus Cleveland, retired Border Patrol agent and current sheriff of Terrell County, Texas, said of the wave of migrant crime.
Criminals who reach the U.S.-Mexico international border sometimes sneak into the country by paying Mexican smugglers to avoid detection.
Others pose as refugees seeking asylum, even though they may have been among those who terrorized their fellow countrymen at home and sent them fleeing.
Every migrant who presents himself at the border or who is apprehended while trying to sneak into the country undergoes a biometrics, including fingerprint, and a background check. A Border Patrol agent, speaking on condition of anonymity, told DailyMail.com.
The problem is that only those who have previously been fingerprinted or who have outstanding criminal arrest warrants are flagged in the system.
Anyone without prior arrests or without using a false name wouldn’t do that.
Groups of migrants of different nationalities arrive at the Rio Grande, to cross it and surrender to US authorities in El Paso, Texas on March 5
Migrants continue to cross the border between El Paso, Texas and Ciudad Juarez, Mexico
Nicholas Maduro, the president of Venezuela, was indicted by the US government in 2020 on charges of narcoterrorism and drug trafficking. He has been in power since 2013, after former dictator Hugo Chavez died
Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland (left) is a retired U.S. Border Patrol agent. Rolando Vazquez (right) is an immigration attorney in Miami, Florida with strong ties to the Venezuelan community
Many Latin American countries do not have biometric screening systems or share criminal records with the US, such as Maduro’s government, which does not have diplomatic relations with America.
“We know such people come in, but without a fingerprint or other criminal flag flagged, we just have to take their word for it when they mingle with the refugees,” the officer explained.
But the Biden administration currently has the power to do more, Cleveland said.
“We could put an end to this; two options: the president can bring back the migrant protection protocols. He should have done that for three years or he should have never taken that process away,” the sheriff said.
The Migrant Protection Protocols, established by the Trump administration, would require U.S. immigration officials to return certain migrants to Mexico while their U.S. removal proceedings are pending.
However, President Biden and Mexico have argued that the program is unlawful as Mexico is not required to accept migrants other than its own citizens.
‘If you let migrants in, at least we can lock them up. Let’s put them in a detention center. When this president (Biden) came in, he cut the Immigration and Customs Enforcement budget, and with that came a smaller bed space where we can hold migrants, the former immigration agent said.
“Either we keep them in Mexico, or we keep them in a detention center here in the United States.”